Where am I?
by BookBluff
Summary: Zac Crimson moves to La Push, to live with her father, and brother. Strange things begin to happen. Like, why do her brother and his friends ditch her constantly? And does it have anything to do with the russet coloured wolf that she keeps seeing?
1. Collin

**A/N:** Well, this is all thanks to DoneDiedLastYear. Yep, it's all her fault. I'm not a fan of Twilight. I've read all the books. I know what it's about. I just don't like it. Anyway, this is really going against my values to even _think_ of writing this. But, there you go. DoneDiedLastYear is an awesome person who makes me do strange things. Enjoy. And no, it won't follow the books. Please review.

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"What's this?" I asked my mum, picking up the envelope with my name on it that was tucked into my mcchicken burger. My little brother, Kevin, sat in the back seat, being his usual self. Which is to say, he was sticking the thin French fries up his nose, instead of in his mouth. Sighing, mum reached behind her and grabbed the happy meal away from him, before taking a rather sharp right turn with only one hand.

"Are you trying to kill me before I'm even fifteen?" I demanded, as my fries leapt out of their box and spread throughout the bag. Great. I hated when my fries went all through my bag.

"Honey, please refrain from talking for a few minutes while I'm driving home." Mum said, and I rolled my eyes. In other words, I'm not listening to you, ask me again when I'm in a better mood. Aren't mum's just the best? Rolling my eyes, I took a slurp of my coke without ice, and began to eat my mcchicken burger. Okay, mum's weren't too bad. Especially when they knew just what you wanted after a long day of suffering through school.

The rest of the drive passed in silence, mum splitting her concentration between the road and giving and taking away Kevin's food as he intermittently cried and stuffed food up his nose.

"Zac, could you _please_," Mum loved stressing the word please. As if with extra stress on the word, I was more likely to bow down to her every whim, "make sure your brother eats his food?" She thrust the happy meal box into my hand, and, as always, I had no choice whatsoever. Sighing dramatically, I did as she asked. By the time we were home, Kevin had consumed the entirety of his happy meal, including the fanta, which for some reason he always spat out when mum tried to make him drink it.

"So what's this?" I asked, waving the envelope underneath mum's nose when she parked in the driveway.

"A birthday card, Zac, what does it look like?" Mum said, rolling her eyes at me. Which, okay, for most people would be well deserved… But I've had a few bad experiences with mysterious envelopes. Well, one.

"Oh, Zac, just open it. It's not going to bite you." Mum said, when I still hadn't opened the envelope by the time we were sitting at the dinner table. I had put it next to my glass of coke.

"Who's it from?" I asked.

"I don't know. It was under the windscreen wiper when I left work." Mum said.

That just made me not want to open it even more.

"_Zaaaaaaaac_." Mum said, rolling her eyes. "Come on. I want to know who sent it."

"What if I don't?" I said, and I know I was being stubborn. Mum sighed.

"If you don't open it, I will." That caused me to snap the envelope up and press it to my chest. I may not be willing to open it, but it's _mine_. Not _hers_. I sighed, and gave up, opening the envelope.

Inside was a birthday card. It had a cartoon picture of a girl with bags over her arms, sunglasses on her head, and the usual misshapen kind of body, holding up a large number 15. I opened it up.

"What the hell?" I asked. When I opened the envelope a plane ticket popped out. Who on Earth would buy me a plane ticket? My curiosity completely peaked, I began reading from the top. Not that it had much to say. In fact, the only things written were my name, and the senders name. The only other text on the card was the classic hallmark gibberish "Hope you have a great day, one year older, one year wiser" blah, blah, blah.

"So, who sent it?" Mum asked, doing her upmost best not to lean over and read the text over my shoulder.

I simply handed her the card as I wordlessly picked up the plane ticket. It was from Brisbane International Airport to Forks, Washington. Where the hell was that? I mean, I know Washington is in America… But what kind of place is called Forks? Really?

"Curse him!" Mum said, slamming the card on the table. "You don't have to go, Zac."

"But I… I think I want to go." I said. I could see mum was close to tears. I couldn't bear to see her like that. "I really do. I'd… I'd like to y'know, meet him…"

"Wouldn't you rather stay here? With your friends?" Mum asked.

"What friends?" I said, which was really a good point. Mum managed to roll her eyes, and give a weak chuckle.

"Alright then. I'll drop you off at the airport tomorrow." Mum said, and kissed me on the cheek. "You should probably go pack after dinner." I nodded, and finished eating, while helping feed Kevin, since Mum was having trouble.

I studied the handwriting on the card while I packed my suitcase. The looped letters seemed so familiar, though I can't imagine why. It wasn't until I opened my good thoughts draw that I realised that why.

Every year, for Christmas, and for my birthday, I received a card from a mysterious sender. Every year I looked forward to them. Since I had my accident, when I was ten years old, these were the only envelopes I have looked forward to opening, and certainly the only one I ever opened straight away.

It was never until today that I understood who always sent them. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I began to read through all of the cards he had sent me over the years. Every year, they told a fantastic story about my mum that I'd never known. They always made me laugh, but mum always frowned when she read them.

It was this which told me to actually believe that the stories were true. I never had before I saw my mum's reaction to it. The most recent story, the Christmas one, had a story about how mum moved to Australia. I always knew she was originally from America, but I never knew she only moved to Australia when she was pregnant with me.

This card, however, was just my name, a lot of blank white card, a classic hallmark greeting, and the word Dad. It made my heart beat faster to read that word. I guess I'd started suspecting who the letters were from for a while, but seeing such confirmation…

I finished packing, and checked the ticket. I needed to be at the airport early tomorrow morning. Earlier than I would have had to be at school, if it weren't a Saturday. Sighing, I decided to go to sleep. It was about ten to twelve by the time I'd finished packing, and had a shower. I would need to be at the airport by five am. Why did I have to be there so early?

Mum opened the door just as I was getting into bed.

"Sweetheart?" She asked. "Are you still awake?" When she noticed I was in bed she was about to back out.

"No, I'm still awake." I said. I had literally just gotten into bed, after all.

"Oh, good." She said. "I… uhhh, I called him." I sat up. Mum never talked to my dad. I didn't even know she still knew how to contact him. "He's… Well, first of all, he… He wants you to stay with him a while…"

"How long do you mean by a while?" I demanded.

"Well, he's booked you into school. You'll be starting your… uhh, freshman? Year there when their summer holidays are over." It felt weird that America would be in their summer holidays. I mean, it's the middle of winter here.

"What?" I asked. I thought he maybe wanted me to stay over for a week… Or a month… But a whole year? "A year?"

"Actually…"

"Four years?"

"Well, sweetheart, he deserves to spend time with you, I guess. And you did say you wanted to meet him. Of course, you can come home any time you want." I nodded. "And don't worry. I cancelled… I told your school you wouldn't be returning. Any time soon, at least." I nodded again.

"Thanks." I said.

"No problem." Mum replied, and walked over to me and hugged me. "I wish he'd given me more warning. I could have done something special for your birthday today. And said goodbye properly." She took a deep breath. "I want you to call me every week. I'd say every day, but you'll probably want to spend time with your friends." She smiled.

"What friends?" I rolled my eyes. I didn't have any friends in Brisbane, that was for sure. And I already doubted that I'd have any in Forks.

"I'd better let you get to sleep now, sweetheart. I'll wake you up when you have to go." She kissed my forehead, in a very mum way, and left, closing my door behind her. For a moment I considered reading. There was no other way I thought I could get to sleep just now. But then, I thought about what time I'd have to wake up. Probably three am. I really couldn't afford to read. Instead, I thrust my headphones on, put my sleeping playlist on, and threw myself hard against my pillows, closing my eyes and forcing myself to go to sleep.

Needless to say, I was exhausted when I woke up. It took three cups of coffee for me to feel even somewhat normal, and by then I had to put my fourth cup in a thermos, and hop in the car with mum. Kevin was still asleep, but strapped into the backseat. Mum couldn't risk him being at home alone.

"Got your ticket?" Mum asked. I nodded.

"How will I recognise him?" I asked suddenly, when I had Kevin on my hip, his sleeping head resting on my shoulder, and mum was dragging my suitcase behind her. The check in was right in front of us, and I had the ticket in my hand.

"He has your hair and eyes." Mum said. "And your height." She laughed a bit. "Well, your hair without the…" I nodded. I had dark brown hair, with blue tips. Why the blue tips? Because I like the colour blue. And I wanted to stand out. "He also told me that he'll be standing there with a card with your name on it."

"As in.."

"Your full name." I shuddered. Zacara Crimson was a horrible name. My mum's last name was Christian. I never knew why she gave me my dad's last name… But Crimson was really nothing compared to Zacara. Really. What was my mum smoking when she gave birth to me?

"Great…" I muttered, as we approached the check in counter. All too soon, I had to wave goodbye to my mum. She slipped a roll of cash into my hand before she left, and kissed me on the cheek.

"I never changed that…" She said, as I unrolled American cash. Into my other hand, she slipped a thousand dollars of rolled up fifty dollar notes. "That's for breakfast, some more coffee, and to change. Your dad told me that you wouldn't be wanting, but I just want you to be prepared. I've also transferred some money to your visa account. And I'll give you your usual allowance." Tears welled in my eyes as I hugged her again. I kissed Kevin on the forehead. He may be an annoying little brother, but, hell. He was an annoying little brother who I was going to miss.

With my suitcase already checked in, and my carry on bag, my school bag, over one shoulder, I made my way over to the mcdonalds, and ordered hotcakes. It was four thirty am. I had half an hour before boarding my plane. Feeling completely out of place, I sat down at a lounge, where I saw other beary eyed people sipping coffee, and eating mcmuffins, or hotcakes.

I bit into the hash brown I'd ordered with my hot cakes. Oh god. I _loved_ hash browns. They were delicious.

"Hi." Someone said, sitting beside me. I freaked out. I don't know how to talk to people. Looking at my hotcakes I considered for a brief moment just grabbing my bag and running. Perhaps buy more hotcakes later. But I knew that wasn't a valid option. These hotcakes were already smothered in maple syrup. Just perfect.

"Hi." I responded, not looking to the right where the person was who was talking to me. Using my peripherals, I could tell that they were male, and quite large. I don't mean fat. I mean big. Tall, and very muscled. Even sitting down I could tell they were taller than me. And I'm six foot two.

"First time travelling alone?" He asked.

I nodded. It was my first time travelling at all, not including when I was a baby in my mother's stomach. But I really didn't think that counted. And I wasn't about to tell a stranger I didn't know that.

"It's nothing to be scared of." He said. I just nodded again, and pulled my hotcakes onto my lap, hoping he'd drop it and stop talking to me if I started eating. Besides, the hotcakes would get cold if I didn't eat them now. And that's just… wrong. They aren't hotcakes then. They're coldcakes.

"So where are you going?" He asked, and I frowned. I had a mouthful of hotcakes which were more like warmcakes in my mouth, and another on a forkful on its way to my mouth.

I swallowed. "America." I said. I didn't really feel like saying anything more about that. I didn't know him.

"Cool. Me too. Which state?" Why could he just ask yes or no answered questions? I swallowed the mouthful of hotcakes I'd again just put in my mouth. After making a point of chewing.

"Washington." I said, before stuffing my face with another mouthful of hotcakes. Couldn't he just leave me alone?

I saw him nod in my peripherals, and thankfully he was silent after that. When I finished my hotcakes, I grabbed my bag and left, downing my last dregs of mcdonalds coffee before dumping the containers in the bin, and heading to the cash exchange.

I exchanged my left over Australian cash to American cash, and sat down again, this time far from the large man who had sat next to me. I pulled all of my money out, and started looking at it, examining it. I guess I was going to have to get used to this strange money.

The unfamiliar papery feeling of the money in my hands brought a frown to my face. I began counting it. I had over five thousand dollars. Wow. Mum had kept a _lot_ of American money.

Splitting the money up, I stashed two thousand in different places in my bag, one thousand in my show, another thousand in my wallet, and the last thousand down my bra. I was _not_ about to let any of this money escape me. There was so much!

Getting onto the plane, I found that I had a window seat. Which I wasn't sure about. I mean, I wanted to look out of the window. But then, I was also worried that maybe I was scared of heights. I mean, I've never really been high up before. No particular reason. Just that I've had no particular reason to be anywhere up high. What if I was scared of heights? What if I started screaming? And having a panic attack on the plane?

I began to hyperventilate. Oh no. I was scared of heights. I had to be. I wasn't scared of anything else. So it must be heights. Why did I have to be scared of heights? I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts I didn't notice when the man sat next to me. It took ten attempts for him to get me to respond.

"Helloo?" He asked, and I looked at him. He was waving his hand in front of my face, and looked li8ke he was about to give up trying.

Although I hadn't looked at him outside of my peripherals before, I could tell straight away that this was the same man. Not just because of how large he was, or his voice. But there was, I guess, a sort of presence about him.

"Hi." I responded, and he smiled.

"Hello again." Now that I was looking at him, I noticed that he was very dark. He had the same dark coloured hair that I did, but his was cut short, close to his head, unlike my long curly locks. He also had dark brown eyes, and his skin was evenly tanned, and I could tell that it was a natural thing, and not just spending hours in sun.

"So, what's your name, plane buddy?" What? Plane buddy? Was he twelve? Actually, looking at him, he looked to be about my age. Maybe a little bit younger.

"Zac." I said, using my nickname. No one called me Zacara. Well, my dad did in his letter. But no one else.

"Oh. Sorry, dude. Thought you were a girl, with that hair." I rolled my eyes. Okay, so Zac was a guys name. It could be a girls name too, right? I mean, it's _my_ name, and I'm a girl.

"I am a girl." I said, sighing. I hated being so flat chested. I was always confused for a guy, even when they didn't know my name. That's one reason why I kept my hair long. I mean, I know that not all girls have long hair, and not all boys have short hair, but hello, would a guy have waist length dark brown curly hair with blue tips? I doubt it.

"Oh. So is Zac short for something then?" He asked.

"Zacara." I said, shuddering at my horrible name.

"Sister!" He said, and wrapped me in a hug. Wait, what?

"What?"

"I'm Collin. Dad made me come here so you wouldn't have to catch the plane alone. I wasn't sure if it was you, though." He said. "I mean, the eyes are pretty much a dead giveaway, but I wasn't sure. And then when you said Zac, I thought I was completely off."

"Uhhh… What?" This went pretty much all over my head.

"Gosh, you're a lot paler than I thought you would be. I mean, dad told me you'd be pale, but I didn't think you'd be _this _pale. It suits you. And you've definitely got the Crimson height." Well, I already knew I had his height. My mum was five foot. Fourteen inches shorter than me.

"Uhh…" I couldn't think of anything else to say. Not that Uhh is really something to say.

"Dog got your tongue?" He asked, and laughed. I didn't get it. Just then the Captain called over the intercom thing, and explained about the exits, as the airhostesses up front gestured.

I started hyperventilating again, and gripped the arms of the seat. Okay, I had to be scared of heights. I just had to be. It's the only thing that made sense. The man… uh… boy… Uhh… Collin… looked at me.

"You okay?" He asked. I shrugged. I don't knowwwwwwwwwwww. I wasn't sure if I was scared of heights or not. I wasn't sure if I was okay or not. I just… I just don't know.

"Are you scared of heights?" He asked. And I shrugged. That was when my mouth bubbled over with my thoughts. It does this sometimes. Stupid, stupid mouth. You're the reason I have no friends.

"I don't know if I'm scared of heights or not. I think I might be. I don't want to be scared of heights." I said, and he laughed. I glared at him, momentarily forgetting my panic. "What's so funny?" I demanded.

"You're worried because you think you _might_ be scared of heights. But you're not sure." He said. I shrugged. That pretty much summed it up, I guess.

"What's so funny about that?" I asked, pouting.

"Well, you're scared that you might be scared of something, so you're panicking as if you were scared, although you don't even know if you are or aren't scared."

Okay, so he had a good point. I took a deep breath, just as the plane began to move, and clutched the arms harder.

"You're really going to love it in La Push." Collin said, after a while. I had gotten over my panic attack. Turns out I wasn't scared of heights. In fact, the view was fantastic.

"La Push?" I asked. The ticket said Forks.

"Yeah. It's by the beach. It's gorgeous." Uhhh… Beach? Okay, so I live about half an hour from the Gold Coast. I've been to the beach once, and I just stood on the sand, not wanting to go into the water. I have my reasons, too. I mean, the amount of scary animals in the water? No way was I going swimming somewhere where sharks could get me. Or where I could stand on a fish that looked like a rock that was poisonous. Or stand on a sting ray's sting.

"You know, you're never going to get along with my friends if you're so quiet." He said, when I didn't say anything.

"Who said I had to get along with your friends?" I demanded, crossing my arms over my flat chest. Yeah. That's why people thought I was a guy a lot of the time. I had a flat chest. No breasts to speak of. And I had a very square face. The only thing I liked about my appearance besides my hair, were my eyes. They were large, and a dark purple colour, something I've never seen in anyone else. Very unique eyes, framed by long, thick, black lashes.

"You'll like them, I'm sure." I frowned.

"You know nothing about me. How could you know if I would like your friends or not? How would you have any idea?" Collin shrugged.

"They're great people. And I know they'd like you." I frowned. "We hear about you every month. Your mom calls dad, and tells him about you." Wait, what?

"Wait, what?"

"Dad wanted today to be a surprise to you, otherwise I'm sure he would have told her a while ago."

"No, I mean about mum talking to… him."

"Well, she calls up once a month." Collin frowned. Then, seeing the look on my face, I guess he put two and two together. "Oh." He said. I made a mental note to demand answers from mum as soon as I arrived in America and could use my mobile again.

After while, Collin managed to get even me to relax, and before long, I had to admit, I was beginning to be interested in meeting his friends. He spent the rest of the plane trip telling me about his friends. He told me about the heartbreak one of his friends, Jake, had been through. I actually cried. Yep, you heard right. I cried over hearing about someone's heartbreak. Someone who I didn't even know.

He was in love with this girl, but she loved someone else entirely. Someone who hated Jake, and who wasn't good for her.

"So what did he do?" I asked, as we left the plane together. I have to admit, the drama had me hooked.

"The only thing he could do. He let her go. He's still upset. Believe me, I have to hear about it." Collin rolled his eyes dramatically, before a shudder went over him. He glanced around, and headed to the nearest bathroom.

"Keep a look out for my luggage, please! I shouldn't be too long!" Wondering what was up with that, I shrugged, and went to the luggage carousel. I found my large blue suitcase quickly, and then looked at the name tags of all the luggage that went past me for Collin Crimson. In the end it was a tiny backpack. I guess he hadn't been in town long.

I waited around with the two backpacks, and the suitcase. Collin came back, eventually, and took my suitcase and his bag from me.

"Dad should be waiting for us." He said. We went through together, and I immediately saw someone who looked almost identical to Collin. A few inches shorter, though still taller than me, and with my eyes, he was holding a large piece of card that said Zacara Crimson on it. I flushed, and immediately grabbed it from him, tearing it up.

"Zacara?" He asked, and spent a minute just staring at me, looking me all over. "Is that really you?" I looked into his dark purple eyes, perfect replicas of my own, and nodded. This was my dad.

Well, I guess now it's onto the unknown in America. It couldn't be too bad, I guess. I mean, right? What's the worse that could happen, being the new kid? And living with my father for the first time in my life.


	2. Hanging Out

I stared at the envelope in front of me as if it were going to bite me. Yeah, yeah, I know. Scaredy cat. Too scared to open an envelope. But, hey. I have my reasons for that! Besides, it wasn't even for me. It was for Collin's friend Sam.

I've been living with my dad and the brother I never even knew I had *hehe, that rhymes. Dad, had. Hehe* for a week now. So far, this week has consisted of me sleeping during the day, and wandering around the house at night. It wasn't that I was scared to go out there… Well, okay, maybe a little. I mean, if you've ever been to La Push, there was this warning, a couple of years ago, about this huge wolf… Anyway, I think I saw it. It looked more like a bear than a wolf, really. It was huge. It was outside my window. I shudder even now thinking about it.

Okay, so that's not entirely true. I mean, it was like that for my first night and day. We arrived in Forks at around two thirty am. I had slept on the flight a little. Between coffees. Collin had mostly talked my ear off, though.

Then the drive from Forks to La Push was horrible. I sat in the back seat, while dad drove, and Collin sat in the front passenger seat. I was playing with my hands, back to the reserved me. Collin tried getting me to talk a couple of times, but at one point my ultra thin dad shook his head, and the rest of the drive was just silence. A very uncomfortable one at that.

I went straight to bed when we got back to there place, and for the first day I slept through the entirety of the day, and then spent the night wide awake. After a few days, though, I managed to get my body used to the American sunrise and sunset. Today's my first day being able to wake up at eight am without being unusually tired. I made myself a hot chocolate for the occasion.

I guess I should explain why I'm staring at the envelope. Well, apart from my history with envelopes, that is. What I mean to say, is I guess I should explain why there is an envelope to Collin's friend Sam in front of me. Well, the answer to that is that Collin was going to visit his friends today, and he was going to take me with him.

"They're so excited to meet you." Collin said, with a grin.

"How's Sam?" Dad called. Over the week, though we hadn't really seen much of each other, I've learned where my silence and shyness came from. My dad is almost as bad as me. Everytime he's seen me over this week, we just stood there gawking at each other for a few minutes, before I worked up the nerve to say hi. It took him a few more minutes of gawking before he would say hi back. Then we usually parted ways.

"He's great. Him and Emily have set a date for next year."

"That's good. How're the others?"

"Well, everyone else is pretty good. Haven't heard from Jake in a while though." Collin said.

"What's going on with him and that Belle of his?"

"It's Bella."

"That's right. What's going on with them?"

"She's getting married to her boyfriend. You know the one?"

"Right. Sad to hear it. When you next talk to him, give him my sympathy."

"Oh, he'll be there today. Sam's dragging him there by his tail."

"Well, tell him I said hi. And that I hope he finds someone worthy of him soon."

"Will do." Collin said, and grinned goofily at dad. That whole conversation would have gone entirely over my head if I didn't have the back story Collin had told me on the plane. Jake was in love with a girl from Forks, who was in love with someone else from there, and although everyone agrees that the boy she's in love with is bad for her, she's too in love with him to care, and she's going to marry him sometime later this summer. It was a very stressful thing for all of Collin's friends, apparently. Though I can't say exactly why. I mean, sure it'd be stressful to see a close friend go through such heartbreak, but the amount of pain Collin had in his eyes when he spoke of it, felt to me almost like he'd been the one to lose the one he'd loved to a boy who wasn't good for her.

"Okay, come on sis. If we don't go now we'll miss out on all the pizza." My mouth was already salivating at the thought. Okay, so I've been awake all of ten minutes. That doesn't mean I don't want pizza. Besides, all I've had to eat all week has been a bowl of lucky charms when I woke up. Collin asked me before I went to sleep that day what I wanted him to buy, if anything. Well, the only American cereal I could think of had been lucky charms. Oh, and count chocula. But I was working my way through the lucky charms box first. I have to admit, they're delicious.

"Okay." I said, and nervously picked up the envelope between two fingers and held it away from me as I followed Collin out to his car.

Okay, Collin was younger than me. He was fourteen years old. But he had a beaten up old ute, and while he didn't have a driver's license, apparently they never bothered to check in La Push.

"Want to grab some drinks on our way?" Collin asked. I said sure. He pulled into a variety store type thing. Like a 7/11, only a little bit larger, and without selling petrol.

"What's this?" I asked, holding up a purple can. It had the fanta label on it. Fanta doesn't make purple drinks!

"Grape soda." Collin said, as if it was obvious. My eyes went wide. Grape. Soda? Grape was my favourite flavour…. They have a soda of it? Quickly snatching up ten cans of the stuff, Collin laughed at me, but then stopped when I grabbed ten more cans of cherry cola. I've always wanted to try cherry cola! I can't believe they don't have it in Australia.

"Maybe you shouldn't over do on the sugar…" Collin said, looking at the vast amounts of drinks I was buying. I shrugged. It was my life. I could overdose on sugar if I wanted to. Besides, it would be worth it. "And maybe you shouldn't buy so many of them when you don't know that you'll like them." I shrugged again. Could he stop pointing out the obvious? Collin sighed, and seemed to accept that I was going to buy them all regardless. He grabbed ten packets of large chips, lots of different flavours, and paid for everything at the counter.

"That's a lot of chips." I commented. Holy cow. I was… commenting on something. Call the news! Tell them my veil of shyness is lifting!

"Haha, yeah, I guess." Collin said. "Mark my word though, by the time we've been there an hour, they'll all be gone." Oh god. They were going to get high, weren't they? I guess my face must have shown something of my thoughts, because Collin laughed.

"No, we don't touch the stuff." He said. "We're just… hungry."

With that, we were back in his ute. I had a can of cherry cola in my hand, and I had made sure to open it before I got in the ute. That way it wouldn't get all fizzed up before I could open it. Taking a long slurp of the unfamiliar liquid, I'm sure my eyes grew round as I stared at the can for a few minutes. Such… wonderful flavour! They've kept this from me for all these years?

"Careful, sis, if you drink too much of that stuff you could go into a sugar coma." Collin said, when I crushed up the cherry cola can and grabbed the next one from the bag which sat between us. I decided to keep with the cherry cola for now. The grape soda I'd try later.

"But… It's so delicious, it has to be good for you." I said, as I opened it carefully. It was still more fizzed up than it should have been, and some of it spilled out and over my hand. But that didn't really bother me this time. I mean, the sticky hand would bother me until I washed it, but for now I could just lick up the delicious, delicious flavour of it.

"More like good for a heart attack." Collin said, rolling his eyes. I shook my head, and began playing with my hair. I do that often when I'm nervous. The dark curls were fun to play with. I'd never cut my hair in my life. The only thing I'd ever had done to it, was to dye the tips.

"I meant good for your soul." I said, giving him a pouting face as I took another long sip of the delicious cherry goodness.

"Alright then." Collin said, and laughed. The second can joined the first, and Collin pulled up to a cute looking cottage. I ooohed when I saw it. I mean, it was so cute. It was small, with white washed walls, and ivy climbing up the walls.

"So cute." I said, getting out of the car, and bringing my eighteen cans of soda with me. I followed Collin to the door, and waited shyly behind him as he pushed his way in.

"Collin!" Someone screamed, and threw herself at him. My eyes were wide, as I saw a streak of bright blonde hair. When she pulled away, the girl turned to me, and grinned. "Hi." She said. "Who are you?"

"That's Zac." Someone else said, behind her. He gave me a big grin. I had a chance to look around, and I saw everyone looked like Collin. All the boys. They were all large, very well built, with the same tanned skin, and their hair all cut short. The one who'd spoken to me was definitely the largest. Woah, someone larger than Collin. I hadn't thought it was possible.

"Zac? Weren't you supposed to bring your sister Collin?" The boy next to Sam said. I could tell he was a boy. He looked my age. Maybe one year older, but definitely not more than two years older than me, though he was definitely the largest in the room, besides the one who'd spoken. "Hey, Zac, did you know that those are girls jeans?" He said, gesturing to my jeans. Okay, so I'm flat chested, and I have a guys name. Why do people always think I'm a guy?

I punched him. I probably wouldn't have done it if he hadn't been standing so close. I didn't have to move from Collin, thankfully.

"Ow." I cried, pulling my hand to my chest. It felt for a moment like it was on fire. Okay, it felt for a moment like he had been on fire. His large chest, which had been bare, was HOT! I don't mean "oh my god, loooook at his chest, it's so gorgeous!" though, if I didn't immediately hate him, I might be thinking that. I mean, "Ooops, I left the stove on and just put my hand on it." hot.

And it had been hard. It felt like I'd punched a rock. I'd say a wall, but I've done that before… My room still has a hole in the wall behind the bed. I hope my mum doesn't look behind it now that I've gone… And his chest definitely felt harder than the wall.

"What was that for?" He demanded, looking into my eyes. I caught my breath, but I sure as hell hope he didn't notice. His eyes were such a dark brown, even his dark skin paled around them. His cheek bones were high, and his face had the qualities of a really gorgeous man, though his eyes twinkled with a boyish laughter, even while he looked confused.

"Jake… Zac _is_ Collin's sister." The man next to him pointed out. I don't think the boy… Jake… heard him. He seemed to be too busy staring at me. I looked away quickly.

"Hi, Zac. We've been looking forward to meeting you." The large man said, and hugged me, causing my eyes to bug out. A strange man's hugging me! If I were an anime character, my arms would be flapping about and I'd probably be screaming. "I'm Sam. The idiot who just insulted you is Jake, this is Paul, Seth, Leah, Simone, Emily," the list went on, and the names swum around in my head. I blinked. Okay.

"Sorry." Jake said, messing up the back of his hair, which I noticed was somewhat longer than everyone else's. It suited him. No. I mustn't think that. I hate him. He's a prick. He insulted me, and then somehow made me break my hand. I might be acting dramatic, but it sure as hell felt like my hand was broken.

"Come on, Zac, let's get that hand of yours looked at." A woman who I recognised as Emily said. I probably only recognised her because one half of her face looked like someone had tried to maul I off. I glanced at it for a moment, but not for long before looking at the rest of her face. She looked really pretty despite that. In fact, I think half of her beauty was because of that mark. She seemed like she was a strong, sensible woman, but she looked like whatever had caused that mark had made her stronger because of it.

"Okay." I said, my voice barely audible. I followed her into a small kitchen, where she checked my hand. She bandaged it up.

"Looks like it's more bruised than anything. Though you must have hit him wrong, your pinky finger seems to be bent at an odd angle.

"Oh." I blushed. "It's always been like that." I said, looking down at my hand. Well, not _always._ But close enough, certainly.

"Oh. Sorry." Emily said. She looked at my pinky finger again, noticing now the long scar that ran along it, and how pink it was around the knuckle. "Well, in that case, your hand should be good as new in a couple of days." She handed me a bag of frozen peas, which I found odd, but cliché. I put the frozen peas on my knuckles, and Emily led me back into the room. There were definitely more men and boys than women and girls. Emily, Simone, and Leah were the only girls apart from myself. Simone was very blonde, and had an annoying laugh. But she seemed to hang about Collin a lot. I thought for a moment they were going out, but when I asked Emily about it, she shook her head.

"Nah. She wants to go out with him, but Collin doesn't really like her." Emily whispered in my ear. I'm not sure why, but I instantly liked and trusted Emily.

I glanced at the only other girl in the room. She looked sullen. But the main difference I noticed about her, was that she looked large. Easily larger than Seth, who Emily told me was her brother. She definitely appeared to be one of the boys.

I began to relax around them. I'm not sure why. I mean, I'm shy. I take forever to warm up to people, and when I do manage to warm up to people, I still tend to be a bit uncomfortable around them. Now… I really have no idea how, but I felt like part of the gang. It must be the atmosphere that was around the room, of friendliness, and trust.

Well, the only person I didn't trust or even like in the room was Jake. He was sitting straight backed on a chair, while the others were all lounged about and relaxed. The strangest thing though, was that he was staring at me. Every time I glanced up at him, my eyes met his, and he didn't bother moving them away. I started to freak out a little, I must admit.

I had claimed a beanbag chair for my own, and was onto my seventh cherry cola. Oh my god. They are amazing. I don't know how, but I seemed to have fit in with the group already. Just as I felt comfortable around them, they seemed comfortable around me. They were all shaking their heads at my ten cans of cherry cola and my ten cans of grape soda. But so far, the cherry cola was fantastic, and I just knew the grape soda was going to be even better. It's grape. It just had to be amazing.

"What's with Jake staring at me?" I asked Collin after a while. He had claimed a beanbag chair next to mine, and had just passed me a slice of meatlover's pizza. Mmmm… Pizza. I took a bite, followed by a swig of my cherry cola, which finished the can.

"What do you mean?" Collin asked, taking my can and throwing it to the bin. He was very accurate. It landed in the bin as I took another bite of my pizza, and opened the next can. Collin rolled his eyes at that.

"I mean he's been staring at me." I said. Collin looked over at his friend, and frowned. For a moment I felt something odd between them, like a crackling energy in the air. Then Jake looked away, and his cheeks flushed. Collin's frown deepened, but then he shook his head.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." He said. I shrugged and accepted his advice, going back to paying attention to the movie, finishing my slice of pizza.

Every now and then I couldn't help it, though. I felt his eyes on me, so I glanced up, right into his dark brown eyes. The eyes that for a moment before had seemed filled with laughter in a serious face now looked to be more serious than the face that surrounded them.

I decided to pay more attention to my next slice of pizza. The movie finished, and we went on to the next one. By then I noticed five pizza boxes and, yep, all ten packets of chips that Collin had bought, were empty and in the bin.

Luckily there were more chips, and more pizza. Wow they could eat a lot. I grabbed a packet of chilli flavoured chips for myself. I love chilli flavoured chips. The next movie was the matrix. Not particularly a favourite of mine, but oh well. Emily came out halfway through with some popcorn. Mmmm… popcorn. I finished my tenth cherry coke, and the chilli chips. Noticing that, yep, again, Jake was watching me. What was with him?

Finally, five movies later, I was back in the ute with Collin, and a healthy addiction to grape soda. Okay, no more cherry cola. It's nice. Hell, it's great…. But grape soda? Oh my god.

It was well into the night, and I yawned, and leaned against the window of Collin's truck, closing my eyes. I wasn't aware that I'd fallen asleep until Collin shook my shoulder.

"So, what did you think?" He asked, as I slipped out of the ute to go back inside with him.

"They all seem very nice." I said.

"That's good. Hey, I'm gonna go for a walk. Dad should be asleep, but if you're hungry there's some cold carbonara in the fridge." He said as he opened the door for me.

"Could I go for a walk with you?" I asked. The night air was crisp, and kinda cool, even though the summer had only just really begun. Today was the twenty third of June. One week after my fifteenth birthday.

"Uhh, actually, umm.." Collin looked around. I could tell he didn't want me to go for a walk with him. Which was odd, because he usually seemed like he enjoyed my company and wanted me around. "I was going to take a pretty difficult trail. Perhaps it's best if I take you there during the day?"

"Sure." I said. Though I didn't particularly feel like it. I watched as he walked off, and for a moment felt like following him. I moved very silently. Even through the woods surrounding dad's house. I'd gone for a couple of walks during the daylight myself… But then I yawned, and I felt maybe I should just go to bed.

I passed the fridge, and thought for a moment about reheating the carbonara. But then I remembered all that I'd eaten today. There had been a hell of a lot of food consumed, to say the least. My stomach definitely felt full. Yawning once more, I just slid into the bed which was mine, and went to sleep.

Collin's story was an interesting one. When my mum had left my dad, he had been heartbroken. That's when one of the women in the village came up to him. She had been obsessed with him for years, and wanted to be with him. Collin had told me that he'd later found out that she was the reason mum had left. It was really sad. Well, my mum left, and dad didn't want the woman, even with mum gone. She was persistent though. I'm not sure how she managed to do it. Collin had left a lot out in that part. But somehow, she managed to get pregnant, and then Collin was born, my half brother.

Asleep, I dreamt of Jake. He was standing under a tree, and as the shadows moved over him, he seemed to change, from a boy, to a wolf. I wasn't afraid of the bear like wolf, though. Then in the dream I twined my fingers through his thick, russet cloak. A knife in my other hand, I slit his throat. Even though I disliked Jake, and the wolf scared me, what I did terrified me even more than the wolf did. I dropped to my knees in the blood, and dropped the knife, before screaming out into the night. Somehow, beyond the fact that I just killed someone… thing… I was horrified. I would never have thought I could kill anything. I couldn't even swat flies. Or stand on ants.

I woke up sweating. It was still dark. Slipping into my dressing gown, I walked over to my window and looked out. There was the wolf, with his russet coloured fur. He was walking through the trees, and his eyes met mine. Dark brown eyes, that for some reason reminded me of Jake. Shivering, I shut my curtains hastily and went to the kitchen. Looking into Collin's room on my way, I found that he was still out. Sighing, I made myself a hot chocolate. Sipping at the soothing, sweet liquid, I tried to forget about the dream, and about Jake.

Collin came in as I was just about to get myself a second cup. I was sitting at the tv, watching old sitcoms, trying to relax.

"Hey, you still up?" Collin asked, as he rummaged through the fridge to get the left over carbonara and put it in the microwave to heat it up.

"You're still hungry?" I asked, shaking my head.

"I went for a long walk." Collin said. Glancing at the clock, I noticed it was two am. We'd gotten in at ten pm.

"Oh." I said, when I noticed the time. Long walk indeed. Collin sat down beside me and began spooning the carbonara into his mouth.

"Anything good on?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Nope." I said, quite honestly. I hadn't found anything even remotely good. Sipping my hot chocolate, I yawned. I should go back to sleep. I'd probably feel better now that I had had two delicious cups of hot chocolate.

After a while I began to notice that Collin was looking at me oddly.

"What?" I asked. He startled.

"What what?"

"What are you looking at me like that for?"

"I wasn't looking at you like anything."

"Yes you were. You were giving me an odd look. What was it for?"

"It wasn't for anything."

"Why don't I believe you?" Probably because his cheeks were flushed, and it seemed obvious even to someone who'd only known him a week, that he was lying.

"I don't know. But I suggest you start believing me. I'm your brother, after all." Collin said, with a grin, though his flushed cheeks still made me not believe him.

Rolling my eyes again, I finished my hot chocolate.

"Well, goodnight." I said, and went back to sleep. I was glad that I didn't dream this time.

When I woke up, I decided I should probably call my mum. She had a lot of shit to explain. Like, why did I have a brother I'd never known about? And what was this about her talking to him every week? EVERY WEEK?

"Zac! Not that it's good to hear from you and all, but do you have any idea what time it is?" Mum sounded sleepy. I glanced at my alarm clock. Holy hell. "Six am?" I said.

"Try eleven pm, sweetheart." Mum said. I nodded, feeling like a goof because I know she can't see it. I'd just been shocked that I had woken so early.

We talked for a while, and she gave me her bullshit excuses. Eventually, two hours later, she was falling asleep at the phone.

"Good to hear you're making friends sweetheart." She yawned audibly.

"Yeah. We're going back there today."

"I'd better let you get on with that." I realised that it must be one am over there, so I eventually hung up, and stretched, before getting dressed, and walking out of my room.

**A/N** : Please review. Hope you enjoy. All inspiration of course goes to the lovely DoneDiedLastYear


	3. Ed

"Got enough grape soda there?" Brady asked. I glanced up at him as I unloaded my armfuls of soda in the fridge.

"There's such a thing as _enough_ grape soda?" (**A/N:** Note: There really IS no such thing as enough grape soda.)

"You'll probably liquefy and turn into a grape soda if you drink all that." Brady was grinning, and he poked my stomach. For someone who I'd only met once before, I would usually lash out, and probably scream. But the playful teasing seemed so natural. Just like everything about hanging out with Collin's friends.

"Hardly." I said, smiling back and finishing putting the grape sodas in the fridge. They took up an entire shelf. But after yesterday, I didn't need to drink one every minute. Actually, I was happy to take it slow. I knew that we'd pretty much be living here over the holidays. Collin said he usually passed out here, but wanted to take me home last night, worried that I'd feel uncomfortable sleeping in a new place while I was still getting used to my home.

"Hey." I spun around from where a tickle war had started with Brady and myself, to see that Jake was standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Behind me, I could feel Brady stand up straight, and step back. I didn't have time to wonder what that was about before Jake smiled at me. Well, tried to. It looked… well, creepy. I did my best not to shudder, but I couldn't help taking a step back so I was closer to Brady.

"Hi." I said. Jake's smile turned into a frown, which somehow seemed more natural on his face. I couldn't help but imagine what his face would look like if he were really smiling. I could see his face light up, his eyes twinkling.

"What are you doing?" Jake asked. His eyes were on me, but he was talking to Brady.

"It's not like that." Brady said. Like what? "Oh, yeah. Collin wanted to talk to you." I was secretly pleased to witness Jake's tanned skin turning bright red.

"Uh… I'll just go… Find him then." He said, and turned around. I turned towards Brady, wondering what that was about, but he shrugged.

"We should go in." He suggested. I nodded.

I followed him in, with the can of grape soda I'd left out, and quickly claimed the same blue beanbag I'd sat on yesterday.

"Same pizzas as yesterday?" Sam asked, as he put the first star wars movie on. As in, Episode One. Not the first one which was made. I decided to extract myself when I noticed the cover.

"Not a fan of Star Wars, Zac?" Emily asked, without turning around. How did she know it was me?

"I prefer the original three. The new ones just don't do it for me." I said, grabbing a stool at their large bench, and watched her make nachos for a while.

"Here, why don't you go for a walk on the beach? If you're gone, say, an hour, the pizza's should be here, and I'll keep some nachos in the oven for you. And I'm sure I can find something else for you to do while they're still going through Episodes One to Three."

"Thanks." I said, and smiled at her. Collin came into the kitchen then, followed by Jake who looked downcast.

"They're watching Star Wars, episode one. And the nachos are nearly ready." Emily said. Collin grinned at her, and at me, before dragging Jake in with him.

"See you in there, Zac." Collin said, as he passed me.

"Might take a while. I'm skipping out on the first three." I said. Collin stopped, though I noticed he pushed Jake in.

"Not a fan of the new ones, huh?" He asked. I smiled, and nodded. "Fair enough. See you when we're up to the fourth one then." He grinned, and followed Jake into the lounge room. I could almost have sworn I heard him say "You stay in here." But when I looked up they were both gone.

Hmmm…

"So, how do I get to the beach?" I asked.

"Go out the door, walk around to the back of the cottage, go straight, and you can't miss it." Emily said. "If your ankles feel wet, you've gone too far." I couldn't help but grin.

"I'll be back in about an hour then." I said.

"Zac?" I spun around at the door. Someone I didn't know was standing there.

"Umm?" I said. I had no idea who this was.

"Oh, Zac. This is Kristen." Emily said. She grinned at Kristen. "Kristen's Sam's sister."

"Oh, hi Kristen." I said, smiling at her. "I didn't see you yesterday?"

"Nah, I was at my boyfriend's place. Embry wanted a romantic day with just the two of us." Kristen did a lady like giggle. She looked very lady like. She wore a pale pink dress, which reached her knees, and her hair was in a loose bun on her head.

"Ok." I said. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too." She smiled. "Hey, just thought I'd mention that if you make any friends, they're always welcome here."

"Huh?"

Emily glanced at Kristen, and I noticed a _look_ happening between them.

"Just thought you should know." Kristen said. "Have a nice trip."

"Okay. See you later then." I waved half-heartedly, and started walking to the beach, following the directions Emily had given me.

I had been out there for about half an hour when I figured I should turn back. Before I could though, I tripped over something. Or, rather, someone.

"Watch where ya going, wouldya?" That someone demanded harshly as she jumped up, and brushed sand from her long tanned legs.

"Sorry." I said, picking myself up, and brushing the sand from my clothes. Urgh there was sand in my hair, as well.

"Sorry ain't gonna change the fact I have your footprint on my leg, now will it?"

"No, I guess not." I said.

"Now shove off, so I can watch this bloke some more." She said.

"Huh?"

"It's called surfing, dorkface. And this guy is gooood at it." She said, elongating the oo sound of good to extreme.

"Who is that?" I asked, looking out to the sea and noticing a guy there. He was blonde, and obviously tall and muscled, though nowhere near as much as Collin and his friends. He looked like more of a lean, runner sort of muscled.

"How am I supposed to know, dorkface? I'm not his mother."

"My name's not dorkface."

"No, but your face is a dork. Hence, dorkface."

"At least I'm not perving on some guy I don't even know."

"At least I'm not standing on innocent maidens."

"No, but you were lying in a hole, and pretty impossible to see." I said. Which was true. Without her jumping up and shouting, I would never have known she was there.

"Huh?" She asked, and looked around, and probably noticed the two walls on either side of where she'd been lying for the first time. "Oh." She said.

"I'm just surprised I'm not the first person to stand on you." I said.

"Well, actually, you weren't the first person." She replied, and I think, yes, I'm pretty positive I saw her blush.

"And you didn't fix your little fortress the first time?"

"It didn't come up the first three times." She said, and looked down. I wasn't sure, but I think that maybe without the sand messing up our heights, she might have been a bit shorter than me, though even with the sand I could tell it wouldn't be by too much.

"I'm sorry I called you dorkface." She said, and stuck out her hand. "Hi, I'm Ed." She smiled.

"Hi, I'm Zac." I replied, smiling back, and shaking her hand. "What's Ed short for?"

"Edrilliany." She replied. I blinked.

"Okay, I thought Zacara was bad. I feel so sorry for you." She cracked a smile again, this one seemed more natural.

"Zacara is pretty bad. But yeah, just call me Ed." She said. "So, do you live around here?"

"Sorta. Not on the beach. I moved here from Australia. My brother and I are just hanging out with his friends. Apparently they do that a lot, so I might be along the beach every now and then."

"Oh, cool. I think I know where you mean. I live near them. I see them there pretty much every day. And boy let me tell you, they are _hot_." She wiggled her eyebrows at me, and both of us laughed.

"Hey, if you live near them, want to come for a walk with me? I was just about to head back, I told them I'd be gone for about an hour. And then I've got to think of something else to distract me while they're watching Star Wars." I grimaced.

"You're NOT a fan of Star Wars?" Ed asked, and shook her head, sending the black and green strands flying. She had shoulder length hair that was obviously a natural black, which suited her tanned skin, and she must have put green streaks in sometime recently, since I couldn't see the black regrowth yet.

"Of course I'm a fan of Star Wars. Just not the new stuff. Original all the way." I said, and started walking back, she fell into step beside me, after grabbing the towel she had been lying on and rolled it up quickly, sticking it under her arm.

"Ah, good point. I'm going to have to agree with you there. The new stuff's just not up to par with the originals." She said. We talked about this and that for a while. She asked me about Australia. I asked her about America, and school here. She was the same age as me, and was going to go to the same school as me.

"So, why are we going to school in Forks, when we live in La Push?" I asked. I knew there was a La Push school, Collin mentioned that he went there, and all of his friends did. Except for the ones who were too old, of course. Which was pretty much Sam.

"La Push is pretty impossible to get into. Your parents have to know people."

"My dad knows people." I pointed out. "My little brother's going there." Ed shrugged.

"I have no idea." She said. "Maybe he wants you to meet people in Forks? Or something?" She shrugged again. I shrugged back, and that had us both giggling.

"Why are you wearing a jumper and jeans in summer? Girl, I'm ho in just a tank top and short shorts." I glanced at her legs. Yep. Those shorts _were_ short.

"Several reasons. One, I pretty much always wear them. Two, I didn't bring any hot weather clothes."

"If it weren't for the fact that you're so tiny, I'd offer you some of my stuff." She said, looking me up and down. Yeah, I was pretty small.

"Here we are." I said.

"Wow, this _is_ right next door to my place." Ed said. She pointed at the other cottage I'd noticed last time I was here. It didn't have nearly as many cars in the driveway, and it didn't look quite as romantic, or run down. It looked like it was very well kept.

"Hey, wanna come with me?" I asked, thinking of Kristen's rather enigmatic message.

"Are you sure?" Ed asked, and looked a bit nervous. I could tell she was thinking of the hot guys she'd obviously seen go in and out.

"Positive. There'll be pizza and nachos."

"Pizza? Nachos? Girl, you'd better not be joking 'bout this." She said, and I swore she licked her lips. I laughed. She looked shocked for a moment, but before long she was laughing with me.

"Come on." I said, and we both walked up.

"Zac! I saved you nachos. The pizzas aren't here yet, which is good, because I won't have to reheat any for you." Emily said as soon as I came inside, with Ed. "And I saved a spare nachos for your friend." I wondered for a moment how Emily knew I'd meet and befriend Ed, but I didn't worry about it for long. Because we soon each had a large pile of nachos in front of us, and oh boy were they delicious, and oh so spicy.

"Emily, right? These are the best nachos I've ever had!" Ed said, ecstatically. Emily blushed.

"Oh, I try." She said, smiling at Ed. "I'm glad you like it. You live next door, right?"

"Yeah." She replied, grinning.

"Cool. You know, you're welcome to stop by any time." I think Ed's jaw dropped, and her eyelids fluttered.

"Really?"

"Any friend of Zac is a friend of ours. Do you also have an aversion to the newer Star Wars movies? Or would you rather help bring the pizzas in when they get here, and maybe go play the xbox in the spare room?"

"There's an xbox?" Ed and I said at the same time. Emily grinned.

"We'll help bring the pizza in then play the xbox." Ed said, and I nodded vigorously. I think I definitely just made a new friend.

The pizzas came just then.

"Hey, can you take these in to the boys? I'll take two in for you to the spare room while I set the xbox up."

"Sure." I said, jumping up and grabbing half the large stack of pizzas, while Ed grabbed the other half. Even half the stack blinded us, and it took a while for us to, quite carefully, make our way into the lounge.

"Pizza!" I couldn't tell whose voice that was. It certainly wasn't Collin's. I found my way to the coffee table, and put my pizzas on it, before taking Ed's from her and putting them beside them.

"Eat up." I said grinning.

"Who's your friend?" Sam asked, for a second I thought he sounded defensive. But then I realised he was being friendly.

"This is Ed." I said, gesturing to her. Ed gave a little twirl, which I think was probably more to hide her blush than to show off.

"Hi everyone." She said, and waved.

"We're just going to go play xbox until you're up to episode four."

"We'll tell you when it's on." Collin said, smiling at me. I noticed that Jake was staring at me. But my eyes glanced over him as quickly as they could to notice Paul staring at Ed. Huh. Guess the weird staring thing runs with the friends.

Grabbing Ed's wrist, I pulled her back to the kitchen with me. We went through the kitchen to where I could hear Emily mucking about.

"Oh, hey." She said, smiling up at us. "Good you found it." She left when she'd fixed the xbox up for a two player shooter game. Eh, who am I to complain? I'll play anything.

"What's with Emily and her scars?" Ed asked when Emily left. I shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't really feel right asking."

"I wouldn't either, usually. I just… I guess I was curious." She shrugged, as she took one of the controllers. I took the other, and we began quite enthusiastically to shoot each other and otherwise just kill each other.

We finished the pizzas three hours in. We paused the game, and I dumped the pizza boxes in the bin.

"Having fun?" Emily asked as I rummaged through the fridge for a grape soda and a coke. The coke was free for all, and Ed didn't like grape soda.

"Of course." I said. "What movie are they up to?"

"Just started episode three." Emily said. "I'll give you a shout when it finishes, don't worry."

"Thanks. Got any chips?" Emily dug around in the cupboard.

"Salt and Vinegar, Barbecue, Tomato, Sweet Chilli and Sour Cream or some doritos."

"Mexicana?"

"Yep."

"Could I please grab a Mexicana and a Sweet Chilli and Sour Cream?"

"Here, take two of each." Emily said, handing me four packets of chips. I seriously doubted we'd get through them during Episode Three, but oh well.

"Thanks." I said, grinning at Emily.

"Have fun."

"Will do."

"And I'm glad you found a friend of your own."

"Thanks."

"Okay, come on, that kill was totally aided!" Ed cried. Okay, so it may have been. So?

"Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me." I teased.

"Hey, guys, episode three's finished, and they're about to start episode four. They're having a break in between. Paul's going to get some chinese to eat. Just tell him what you want and he'll grab it for you. Oh, and Ed, I think it's probably best if you tell your parents if you wanna stay and watch the movies. It's starting to get pretty late."

"Yeah, sure." Ed said. And I watched as she went next door.

I gave my order to Paul, and claimed a green and a blue beanbag. Ed came back, grinning, and sat down in the green beanbag.

"Here." I passed her a can of coke, while opening my grape soda.

"Thanks, Zac." She said, and opened her coke, taking a sip.

I was glad I had Ed to talk to while everyone was waiting for Paul to come back. If I didn't have something to distract me, I probably would have been freaked out by Jake's continued staring. Okay, it was beginning to really freak the hell out of me.

"Hey, Zac, do you like Harry Potter?" Ed asked.

"Like it's possible to _not_ like Harry Potter?"

"Excellent point. We should have a marathon some time!"

"We should!"

"Totally."

I couldn't help but laugh. I sipped my grape soda, and grinned at my new friend. Okay, she was awesome.

"Foooooood!" Brady intoned as Paul came back with chinese. He gave everyone their containers, and we relaxed and ate while we began to watch one of the only three good Star Wars movies.

"I make a motion that this is an excellent film." Ed whispered as the credits were on.

"I second that motion." I whispered back.

As expected, the movie was excellent. And when all three good movies were finished, I was yawning, and in the car with Collin, watching my new friend make her way to her home.

When we got home, Collin went for another walk. Shrugging it off, I just decided to go to sleep. A sound woke me up two hours later, and I heard Collin coming in. What was with the long walks?

Sitting up, I walked to my window. As I glanced through the curtains, I quickly covered them again. In the few seconds they'd been open, I'd seen a giant russet coloured bear-sized wolf there. Making sure my window was locked, I climbed back into bed, and was far too awake to sleep for an hour.

Finally I slept again.

"What's up with a _boys day_ anyway? I mean, wasn't that exactly what we were doing yesterday?" I asked Ed as I threw myself on her couch. When I'd woken up that morning, Collin told me he'd be happy to drive me to Ed's, but that he and his friends were having a boys day.

"I have no idea. Hey, you can sleep over tonight, right?"

"Of course. I brought my PJ's."

"Excellent. Wanna go to Pim's for dinner tonight?"

"Pim's?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, you wouldn't have been there yet. Okay, we're _so_ going there for dinner tonight."

"Okay." I grinned at her, and we started the Harry Potter marathon.

"Pass me that tissue." I said when we reached Cedric's death. There were two empty pizza boxes in front of us from lunch.

"When this is done, we're soooo going to Pim's."

"Sure, sure." I said, but I grinned at her just as she grinned at me.

"Wait, aren't your parents going to drive?" I asked, eying the car as she jumped in the driver's seat.

"Of course not. They're practically never home anyway. To be honest, they weren't even home yesterday. I just lied." She rolled her eyes. "Come on, get in." I got in.

"Are you sure? I thought you couldn't drive until you were sixteen over here, same as Australia."

"Pffft. Your brother drives, doesn't he?"

"Yeah." I said.

"And he's younger than you, right?"

"Yeah."

"Want me to give you some driving lessons sometime?"

"Sure. I'll probably need them."

"At least I can drive you to school when it starts up."

"Thank god for that."

I had to literally pry my hand off of the door handle when we reached the destination.

"That was… fast." I said. I wobbled my first few steps I took away from the car.

"Oh, you'll get used to it." Ed said, rolling her eyes. She walked around to my side of the car and grabbed my wrist. "Come on, let's go."

She dragged me through an alley. At the very end, she dropped to her knees, simultaneously dropping my wrist.

"Follow me." She said, crawling through a hole. My eyes widened.

"Uhhh, are we even supposed to do that?" I asked. I could hear her laughing on the other side.

"Of course." She called. I dropped to my knees and followed her, glad that I was wearing thick jeans instead of the short shorts she was wearing. If she did this often, in those shorts, her knees must really hurt.

It was a rather long crawl, and I felt my breath come fast in front of me. I was glad when I reached the end. There was more light, and more room. Ed stood up before me, and reached down a hand to help me up.

Standing up, I glanced around. We were in what looked like a rather dirty lounge room.

"Uhhh, is this Pim's?" I asked. Ed grinned at me.

"Of course not. This is just the way to Pim's."

"Right…"

"Listen, Zac. I gotta tell ya something. Pim's is gonna be like no place you've ever been before. Now, I go here lots. So do most of my friends. One of the best thing about Pim's is that there's never anyone there. But the food is the best. Trust me."

"Okay." I said. Ed grinned at me, and grabbed my wrist again. She pulled me through the dirty lounge room area and through a door. When the door opened I was shocked to see what looked like an average, clean diner.

"Come on, I'm just gonna quickly show you _why_ we went that way." Ed said, and pulled me over to a window. Glancing out, I saw a huge line, with a large man, obviously a bouncer, stopping them from going in.

"Woah." I said. "Long line."

"Pim only tells the secret way to a few people." Ed said. She pulled me to a spare two seater table, and handed me a menu.

"Now, just a quick warning, Pim has the menu memorized. She will purposely order you the wrong thing if you don't say the number instead of the name." Ed said as I perused the menu. Not sure what she meant, I glanced to the right of the large list of meals, and noticed they had a corresponding number.

A woman who I'd assume was in her late teens to early twenties came up to us with a notepad and pencil held in front of her. Just like the theme of the diner, which was pink and blue, her outfit was pink and blue. As was her hair.

"What can I get you two today?" She asked, and gave a wink to Ed. "Showing new comers my secret, I see? Tut tut."

"I'll have my usual. Two one hundred and seven's, with a side of a large fourteen smothered in six hundred and two mixed with six hundred and four, and some six hundred and seven as well. With a five hundred and five to drink." I blinked at her, before looking up the numbers on the menu.

She'd ordered two small pizzas with a large chips smothered in barbecue sauce with sweet chilli sauce, and sour cream, with a coke to drink.

"I'll have a double large fourteen, smothered in six hundred and four and six hundred and seven. A two three hundred and fourteen, with extra six hundred and seven, and extra nine hundred and one and nine hundred and two on the side, and a five hundred and fifteen to drink."

"Excellent. Good to see new comers customising their order." The woman said, and smiled at me. "So that's a double large chips, smothered in sweet chilli sauce and sour cream, a chicken chimichanga with extra sour cream, and extra rice and lettuce on the side, and a grape soda to drink."

"Yep." I smiled back at her. I felt a little bit proud of myself. That was quite a mouthful. And for someone to memorise the whole menu had to be an achievement.

"What did I tell you? The food is just fantastic." Ed said as the woman who Ed had informed me was Pim came back to our table with a very large tray. She placed a considerable bowl filled with chips in front of Ed. The sauces Ed had asked for had been mixed in with the large greasy looking chips, and I couldn't help but think that the barbecue sauce looked like it went well with the sweet chilli and sour cream. That was when my twice as large bowl was placed in front of me.

"One large and one double large fourteen." Pim said.

She named the number of each dish as she placed it all in front of us. Then she gave each of us three cans of the drink we'd chosen.

"Enjoy." Pim said, and walked off.

"Woah." I said looking at the food. This looked like the sort of meal that would make even me full. Not to mention Collin and his friends. What was it about us all that meant we could eat and eat like that?

"I can't believe you won't gain a single pound after eating all of that." Ed said, as she wrapped her small pizza up into a roll and took a bite.

"I know. I hate it. I mean, who wants to look at a stick insect? I'd rather have some curves." I glared at my stomach. Why did you not gain weight? WHYYYY!

The food was, as promised, delicious. To the point where I can't imagine eating the same things anywhere else. I tried one of Ed's chips, to see what they tasted like with the barbecue sauce. Definitely ordering that next time. And Ed and I exchanged a bite of pizza for a bite of chimichanga. The pizza's were nice.

"We can just go out the normal way this time." Ed said, after we paid our bill, which really surprised me and turned out to be quite cheap.

"Wow." I said, as we walked past the very long line. I saw people shooting us jealous looks, even as they started moving up slowly as some people finally got in.

"I know, right? But they'll all get in. Pim hates seeing people disappointed."

"How?" I asked, imagining the small diner.

"In about ten minutes she'll open up the larger diner. That's what most of these people are really lined up for. But I prefer the smaller diner."

"Fair enough." I said, as I got in the passenger seat, and gripped the door handle tight before Ed even began driving.

**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed that. Again, all inspiration to write at all comes from the amazing DoneDiedLastYear. Now I'm going back to your regularly scheduled fanfiction for the foreseeable future *Which means for tonight, tomorrow, and after that who knows what I'll be writing* If anyone reviews on this before I start writing, they get to choose which fanfiction I'll write the next chapter to.


	4. Pain

"Wow, girl, you look like you haven't slept in yonks." Ed said as she walked into the kitchen. I was sitting at the bench, trying to get the energy to get a grape soda out of the fridge. I'd been at Sam and Emily's for five minutes before Ed came over. Today Collin and I were the first ones here, and he had just run upstairs to wake Sam and Emily up.

"Oh, gee, thanks." I said, rolling my eyes. I knew they were bloodshot. Damnit. I really haven't slept in ages. I jumped as a loud thump sounded from upstairs. I heard a growl, and a sudden ripping sound. I wasn't the only one who was surprised. Ed was pale, eyes wide, and looked like a scared rabbit about to run.

"You stay here." I said, and started heading to Sam and Emily's room. Ed ignored me, following me. When I shot her a glare, she took her turn to roll her eyes.

"Girl, you're tiny, there ain't nothing you can do if there's any trouble." To emphasise her point she flexed her bicep.

We made it to their room, to see Emily pushing something under the bed, a sheet wrapped around her.

"Umm, is everything alright?" I asked, looking around. Where were Sam and Collin?

"Yeah, everything's fine." A fairly long pause as I noticed the broken vase on the floor. "Uhh, Collin just tried to wake us up by grabbing the sheet of us. The sheet tore and He fell backwards, knocking the vase over.." She said. "They just went into the bathroom to get changed."

"Okay." I said. Ed and I went downstairs. Her story sounded odd. Though I don't know why.

"Hey." Embry said as he walked into the kitchen. "Kristin here?"

"Yeah, she's in the lounge." I said, as I opened the grape soda I'd finally gotten around to getting.

"Thanks." Embry said, smiling at me. The next person to come in was Paul. He didn't say anything when he saw Ed. In fact, I'd say he blushed and just about ran into the lounge. Ed stared after him and gave a low whistle.

"Girl, there's some fine hunk of meat in that room." I almost spat out my sip of grape soda I was laughing so hard. Ed had to slap me on the back so I didn't choke.

"You're gonna be so sorry about that." I said, attempting to make my voice menacing... It didn't really work so well. Just then Jake walked through the front door. He looked like a kid who was being forced to do something they didn't want to do.

I only realised what it was when he walked up to where I sat at the bench.

"Hi." He said.

"Hi." I replied, watching his eyes, wondering what this was about. It looked for a moment as though he was going to have a heart attack. His face turned red, and he seemed to be spluttering over some words...

"How are you?" He askeed, finally giving voice to those words. Ed was staring at him outright. I think it's safe to say that I was doing the same. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if my jaw had actually dropped.

"Fine... You?" I finally managed to ask.

"Fine." With that he walked off into the lounge, at the same time Collin and Sam came down stairs. Odd. I could have sworn Collin had been wearing a red shirt when we'd left. But now it was yellow.

"Anyone here yet?" Sam asked, smiling at Ed and me as he got himself a cup of juice from the fridge. "And isn't it too early to be drinking that?"

"It's never too early or too late for grape soda." I said, taking a swig of it and almost choking as proof.

"You just need to stop guzzling it so." Ed said, poking my ribs. Everyone laughed. "And I'm still new here, but I think that was Embry, Paul, and Jake?" Ed said. I nodded. "Embry, Paul, and Jake are in the lounge."

"Jake's here?" Collin asked, and he glanced at Sam.

"Of course." Sam said, and I could tell there was something going on between the two of the for a moment. Then the moment was gone, and for the first time since I'd met him, I saw Collin angry. He grabbed a coke from the fridge, and stormed upstairs in a huff.

"What was that about?" I asked Sam.

He looked into my eyes. For a second I could tell he was thinking about what he was going to say. Almost certainly whatever it was was going to be a lie. I'm not stupid.

"He and Jake had an argument yesterday, and while Jake's trying to apologize about it, it's all too fresh in Collins mind for him to forvice it." That was a lie. I'm not sure how I knew. It seemed plausible enough. Jake hadn't said enough to me to make me feel whether or not he was the type to begin an argument. Collin had told me himself that he's slow to anger but even slower to forgive. He'd told me a story about when he was in primary school and a teacher had embarrassed him in front of the whole school. He had tried to be nice about it, but for whatever reason, the teacher had it in for him, until it finally culminated in the public scandal. Collin was still performing small acts of revenge, though it happened years ago.

It could have been how long he spent thinking of what he was going to say before he said it. Or it could have been the fact that I could almost have sworn that who Collin was really angry at was Sam.

"He'll calm down in a bit, and accept Jake's apology. just you wait." Sam said, and grinned, before walking into the lounge.

"Maybe Jake likes you, and Collin thinks you can do better?" I almost choked for the third time that morning.

"That's it, I'm going into the lounge where there are some sane people." I said, picking up my grape soda and going into the lounge, just as Emily entered the kitchen. I heard her asking Ed if she'd like to help make some pancakes. I didn't quite hear Ed's answer before the door closed behind me, but since she didn't walk into my back, I think I can safely assume she agreed.

"What's on for today?" Paul asked Sam as he grabbed a seat on the couch.

"I was thinking Lord of the Rings." Sam said, putting the first disc in the DVD player. We waited for everyone else to arrive. It didn't take them long. And by then we all had plates piled high with pancakes in front of us. I noticed Ed sitting next to Paul, and though I'm not sure either of them noticed, they moth kept glancing at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. I couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, Jake, catch." Collin said when he came in. He looked calmer than before. He threw an envelope at Jake. Despite myself, my first thought was that maybe Sam had been telling the truth, and they'd had an argument. Maybe what was in the envelope to Jake was like what was in the envelope I opened...

My second thought was that I'm a scaredy cat idiot, and Collin wouldn't be trying to kill Jake. When Jake opened the envelope, inside was just a note which he read quickly. I swear his whole expression changed when he read it. Whereas before he was his usual gloomy looking self, he suddenly looked like a kid who was given that one present on Christmas that they wanted more than anything.

I was watching him curiously, so I noticed that instead of looking up to Collin, like I'd expect he would, he looked up at me first, and a smile lit his face. An honest to goodness smile. The kind that made him look like he was happy, and couldn't be happier. The kind that made me want to smile in response. I quickly tore my gaze away from him, looking instead at the screen, just as Sam pressed play. Collin got comfortable in a bean bag next to Jakes. I was curled up on a window seat, out of the way. When I'd first got comfortable, I couldn't help but imagine just how perfect it would be to read a book here.

We had home cooked chicken burgers for lunch, and dinner was fish and chips.

"See you later." Jake said as I left.

For some reason my first thought was "don't you mean tomorrow?" But I was too tired to voice that. Besides, a lot of people said see you later, instead of bye, see you tomorrow, or simply see you.

Collin drove us home, and always began one of his walks. I was about to follow him, but a yawn stopped me. No. I needed to catch up on some sleep.

I'm not sure what woke me. My dream faded quickly as I clutched my covers to my chest, breathing raggedly.

All I could remember was a blinding white pain. The same dream that had kept me awake for the past few weeks. My days were all spent either at Sam's or right here, with Ed, and ever since their first "boys day" I had been waking to blinding white pain, my chest heaving, my breath uneven.

Like every night before, I stood up and walked to the window, leaning on the sill and looking out. The wolf was there again. Every night. It was like a ritual. I'd try to go to sleep, dream of the blinding white pain, walk to the window, lean on the sill, and just stare into the dark brown eyes of the wolf. All it did most nights was sit there. Sometimes it was panting, as if it had been on a long run. Sometimes it wasn't even looking at me. Like right now, it was seated with its back to the window. If I didn't know better, I could almost let myself think that it was trying to... protect me.

As it usually did on the nights it wasn't facing me for the most part, the wolf turned its head around, and shot me a big, wolfy grin. Then, it jumped up and quickly trotted off. I had become used to this as well. It didn't do that often, but when it did, I felt as though a voice hovered in the air around me. A voice that was saying "I'll be back." In a completely non-Terminator way.

I sighed, feeling overly dramatic, and went back to bed. As I had been getting used to in this ritual, I couldn't go back to sleep. I tossed and turned in my blankets for a while, before getting up and looking out of the window again. The wolf wasn't back yet. I shivered, despite the late summer warmth.

Two weeks.

I had two weeks of summer left before it was autumn and I had to go to school.

I have to admit, I did enjoy the long holiday. It was nowhere near as long in Australia.

Finally, yawning, I got dressed and walked to the ute. Collin was already out there. Another sleepless night.

"Ready?" He asked as he threw the keys at me.

"Not one iota." I said. I got behind the wheel. Collin had been great in instructing me to drive over the past few weeks. To the point where I felt confident driving on actual roads.

We made it to Sam's in once piece... Somehow. And Ed was already inside. So was everyone else. Okay so maybe I was still a bit cautious on the roads. Besides, I needed to be. Weary drivers aren't good drivers.

I grabbed a coke from the fridge and sat down at the bench. Collin pulled Emily upstairs, asking her about what I assumed was a book. While they were gone I was alone in the kitchen, until Jake came in, the door swinging shut silently behind him.

"Hi." He said, sitting at the bench next to me.

"Hi." I said, staring at my soda. What was going on with him? From the first time I met him, he was cold.. Well, in the figurative sense. He was cold, and his constant staring unnerved me to no end. He barely said hi to me in passing, let alone sitting down beside me and trying to converse with me...

"No grape soda left? I could run to the store if you want."

"No thanks. I mean, there's plenty left, I just felt like something different for a bit."

"Fair enough." He said, and chuckled. "So how are you?"

I was about to answer with fine, before leaving quickly and going to the lounge, but something inside me compelled me to be honest. Completely honest.

"Tired." I said. And before I knew it, I was talking to him. Talking to this quiet, standoffish guy who I had hated since I first saw him. I saw him smile when I mentioned the wolf. As if he was happy that my nights were plagued by nightmares and beasts. Shuddering despite myself, I quickly excused myself and ran to the lounge.

He came in a few seconds later, and settled down in the beanbag closest to the window seat. I couldn't help but feel somewhat uncomfortable with him so close to me. But I ignored that feeling, and "soldiered on" as my mum would say.

I didn't really pay much attention to the movies. I didn't really care. All I could think of was what on earth was that feeling that had possessed me to tell the truth to Jake. More than that, why did I do it?

Deep in my own thoughts, I didn't notice when they changed movies. I did manage to notice something no one else did, though. Ed was sitting close enough to Paul that their sides were touching. And I have the distinct feeling that they weren't paying any more attention to the movie than I was.

**A/N:** Another chapter should be up a bit more soonish. And hopefully a bit longer. I actually feel really bad. I was originally planning to have this around the 10,000 word mark, to make up for not writing anything for some time. Instead I kinda have to break it off here. I could always save it and get back to work on it tomorrow or the next day, but I've never been good at that sort of writing. Besides, I haven't updated in way too long, and I feel the need to make up for it by posting this sooner and giving you more substance later. Milk and cookies for those who review. As always DunDiedLastYear is epic, epic, epic, and my only real inspiration to write at the moment.


	5. Sleeping Pills

"Here." Dad said, sliding an envelope across the table towards me.

For the first time in my schooling life, I wasnt wearing a uniform. It felt weird dressing however I want, and knowing that I was going to school.

"What's this?" I asked, poking the envelope carefully. I could tell just by looking at it that it wasn't just a letter in there. There was a bulge about midway, and without knowing what was in it exactly, I knew that there was something.

"Oh for Christ's sakes, just open it. It's not like it's a bloody bomb or anything." He said, before storming out of the house. Collin and I both stared after him. That was the most emotion he'd shown towards me since I came here.

"What was that about?" I asked, as I heard his car start up and drive away.

"Well, I think it was just because he's getting annoyed with the way you seem to be scared of envelopes. Plus... Well, open it." Collin said, taking a sip of some orange juice.

I opened the envelope. Inside were a set of care keys. "What's this?" I asked. They definitely weren't to Collin's ute.

"Well, I'll drive you today so you know where to go, but from tomorrow, you won't be able to get to school without that."

A car. My dad had bought me a car. And when we left, a bag on one shoulder with a few blank exericse books, there it was in the driveway.

Collin drove a beat-up old ute. Dad drove an old VW bug. Sitting in the car, all shiny and new, was a blue Ford Mondeo.

"Okay, I know Dad's a lawyer, and all, but does he do celebrity cases or something to be able to afford this?"

"Actually, it's not as new as you might think. Dad did a job for the owner, who had more cars than sense. It's not that new, but it's as good as. He only used it once or twice. And this was his least expensive car.

"Wow." I said, looking at the car. It was so... awesome.

"You can take it for a spin later. It probably wouldn't look too good when you got it back if I parked it at my school." I had to hide a smile as I climbed into his ute.

"I'll pick you up at three thirty." He said when he dropped me off. He drove off then, leaving me feeling like an absolute dork being dropped off at school, when by the looks of it everyone else here drove themselves.

I pulled my hood up and walked to the administration building as quick as I could. The lady behind the counter looked up when I entered. She had dyed red hair, horn rimmed glasses, and long, bright pink fingernails.

"You must be Mister Crimson." She said when she saw me looking about curiously.

"Uhh, Miss." I said. She nodded, and tapped away at the computer in front of her for a bit.

"Well, I'll get a student in here to help you get used to the layout of the place." She said after a few seconds of tap-tap-tap.

"Okay." I said, tempted to roll my eyes.

"Take a seat." She said, gesturing to a row of plastic chairs. I sat down. She picked up a phone and talked into it in a low voice for a moment. I barely heard anything, but what I did pick up was "Zacary... Simple... Care... Bell... Now."

Whatever that meant.

"He'll be here in just a moment." She said, hanging up the phone.

"Thanks." I said.

Just a moment turned into half an hour. According to my watch the bell was due to ring any second... And then I had to gasp. I could only assume that this was Edward. He had bronze coloured hair that was tousled in a kind of "I don't care how I look" look, and black eyes. I suppose he could be called gorgeous... Okay, drop dead gorgeous. But for whatever reason the first moment I saw him I just... Well, to put it simply, I hated him.

"Zac?" He asked when he saw me. I nodded. He looked me up and down. "Don't you know those are girls jeans?" He asked. I punched him. And for the second time I felt like I'd punched a rock. Except that this time when I punched him, instead of feeling hot, his solid body felt cold as ice. I drew my hand back quickly and cradled it to my chest.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"Because it's your first day I'll pretend I didn't see that, but any more and I'll have to put you in detention, Mister Crimson." The secretary said, having noticed my hitting him. The bell went off.

"It's Miss." I said, through my teeth. God some people could be thick.

"Oh. Sorry." Edward said, and I could tell that had shocked him. I really wish I wasn't so flat chested sometimes. Sighing, I threw my bag on my shoulder and walked out. Just before the door closed behind me I called out to Edward.

"Well, are you gonna show me to my class or not?" I studied my timetable. It more or less meant nothing to me.

Edward came out and took the lead, showing me to m first class. Which I learned was his first class as well.

As soon as we were in the room Edward made his way to sit next to a girl. She was as pale as me (though I think it's only fair to point out at the moment that neither of us were as pale as him) with plain brown hair and mud coloured eyes. I looked around and quickly sat down at the only empty seat, next to a blonde boy who looked like he was probably a football player.

"Hi dude." He said when I sat down next to him. "You know those are girls jeans right?" Instead of hitting him, because obviously there's something in the water here that made American boys hard as rock, I just slammed my head on my desk. I happened to be lucky enough to be sitting behind Edward and the girl with the mud coloured eyes. He turned around and stage whispered "She's a girl."

The girl next to him turned around surprised. She looked at me and I could tell from her eyes how surprised that made her.

"Really?" She asked.

"Really." I said.

"Hi. I'm Bella." She held out her hand. I took it and gave it a bit of a shake before dropping it and crossing my arms on the desk in front of me.

"Zac." I said.

"You're a girl who's name is Zac?" The boy next to me asked, and laughed. He coughed quickly to cover it. "I'm Mike." I sighed and was glad when the teacher came in.

Unfortunately that was when I had to stand up in front of the class, looking like a dork, telling everyone that my name's Zac, I'm from Australia, and I'm currently living in La Push with my Dad and half brother who I'd never met before my sixteenth birthday. And yes, I am a girl.

And then the lesson began. After that Edward took me to my next clss, and the next one. Each time I happened to sit next to Mike and behind Bella and Edward. Lucky me.

During lunch I made my way to the corner of the room, thankfully claiming an empty table. Unthankfully, sitting at the table right next to mine were Edward and Bella. Well, it started off with just the two of them. Then two girls and two boys who I hadn't met yet, though I think I might have seen them around places, joined them. All four of them looked gorgeous. Don't get me wrong, I'm not into girls in the slightest. But even I had to admit that those two girls were just as gorgeous as the guys. All six of them were pale, though Bella almost looked tanned next to the other five.

None of them said a word. And as I watched it looked like Bella was the only one eating anything. And even then it was only because Edward practically fed them to her. Even worse than all of them sitting next to me, was that Mike, and a few other guys who I hadn't really met yet sat at my table and tried to talk to me. I was more than glad when the bell rang and I could dump my empty tray with the others and run to my next class. Because I didn't know where it was, I had to wait outside the cafeteria for Edward to come out and take me to my next class. Of course, just my luck, he walked right past me with Bella, and one of the girls from their table. She was short and had short hair. My first thought when I saw her was that she looked like a pixie. She had pointed features, and bright yellow eyes.

"Looking for your next class?" Great, just great. It was Mike who found me outside the cafeteria.

"Yeah." I said. "I have Ancient history." I held out my timetable to him.

"Cool. Let me show you." He said. And then he walked me to class, talking all the while. I just smiled and nodded where it was needed. I was glad to sit down at Ancient History. To be perfectly honest, this was the one class I was really interested in. Well, I must admit that I would be much more interested in it if I could actually hear the teacher. Instead, all I heard was Mike chattering away in my ear about this and that.

In front of me, as always, Bella and Edward. They were talking as well, though much quieter. Worse than that, though, was that the teacher who just sat at the front of the class, with the required reading material written on the board behind her, just letting her students chatter to themselves.

"Hey, Zac, what do you think on the subject?" I had to draw my eyes from the line of the textbook I'd read five times now to look up at Bella. She and Edward had turned their chairs towards me.

"I'm sorry, on what?" I asked. All I could think was: "Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our lve of the things of the mind does not make us soft" the line I'd read about five times now.

"If you were an animal, what would you be?" What kind of dumb question was that?

I saw Edward looking at me oddly.

"Umm... I guess a cat maybe? You know, solitary, and what not?" I yawned. Those damn dreams were keeping me up all night again.

"Are you alright?" Mike asked. "You look tired. Are you tired? You look like you haven't slept in a while." He looked at me closely, and I could tell he was looking more specifically at the bags under my eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, shrugging it off. I wish Ed were here. But she had the flu. And I already knew her timetable off by heart. We only had once class together.

Finally the bell rang, and school was over. I was so glad to jump up out of maths, the one class I would be sharing with my friend when she was better, and practically run to the school parking lot.

I was even glad to get lost a couple of times. Keeping an eye on the time, it was three now, and Collin wouldn't be here until half past. Sighing, I sat down on the curb, and pulled my history book out of my bag. Ancient Greece was pretty interesting, when you think about it. The first chapter, which we were supposed to read in class today, was about Pericles.

I had read five pages more of the two I'd managed in class, when Mike found me and sat down beside me.

"Don't you learn how to drive over there in Australia?" He asked.

"Actually I know how to drive. My brother just dropped me off here because I didn't know the way."

"Oh, cool. Want a ride home?"

"No thanks, he'll be here in twenty five minutes." I said.

"Oh. Okay. I'll keep you company until then." He said. I was really tempted to tell him to leave me alone, but I wasn't mean enough to. Instead I just sat there and nodded when it was appropriate. I managed to read another four pages while he chattered away in my ear. Wow some people can be blind. He didn't even seem to notice that I was reading while he was talking to me.

"Hey, sis." Collin said. I saw Mike recoil when he noticed him. Okay, I had to hide a smile there. So my brother was big. And he had Jake and Paul in the back of his car. All three of them were quite large. Mike practically bolted.

I laughed at that as I sat in the front with Collin.

I didn't even care that Jake was back there. I just ignored him and talked happily with Collin and Paul as we drove to Sam's.

Everyone was there already. Except for Ed. I asked Emily if I could take some of her nachos over to her to help her feel better. She loaded up a huge container for me.

"Thank you." I smiled at Emily, and she smiled back.

"Can I come with you?" Paul asked. Jake was standing beside him, and I had the instinctual feeling that when Paul said "I" he meant "we". Wishing that it was just Paul, without Jake, I said yes anyway.

The three of us made our way over to Ed's. She was in her room, reading an American history text book.

"Thank god." She said, coughing up into a tissue. "People come to break me from my prison!"

"Actually you're to stay here and get better. We just have nachos and temporary company." I said, holding up the large container of nachos, and watching her practically drool.

"Those Emily's?" She asked, sitting up. We sat on her bed with her and shared the nachos. Jake was silent, and the only one to sit on the floor. He just kept staring at me. I did my best not to shudder.

"Hey, we should probably get back now, they'll be watching Dr. Who without us if we don't." Paul said finally.

"Awww." Ed said, and pouted. "Come back again soon?" She asked.

"Of course." I said, but I knew she was really talking to Paul. Okay, I mustn't get jealous, but it was really hard not to when Paul leaned over and planted a kiss on Ed's lips.

They'd been kissing for a while now. They were a really cute couple, I must admit, but still, she seemed to want to spend more time with him now than with me.

I sighed, and stood up. "I'll leave you two alone for a bit." I said, and grabbed Jake's wrist dragging him from the room. Okay, so I'm not usually a herculean type person, but for some reason when I grabbed his wrist and pulled I actually dragged him a while. I was so shocked I stopped and just dropped his wrist before walking out of the room. He jumped up and followed me. By the way his eyes were wide it was obviously a shock for him, too.

"Let me feel your hand again." He said when the door was closed.

"Leave off." I said, and walked off. He grabbed my bare arm, and unlike the time I punched him, he didn't feel hot. His skin felt normal.

"Zac, you're burning up." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm not getting the flu." I said, pulling my hand away.

I heard a large thump from Ed's room as I walked away from Jake. He just stood there as Paul came out. I heard hushed voices behind me as I walked back to Sam's. I was glaring pretty readily when I flopped down on my by now usual window seat.

"And now that you three are back, Dr. Who it is." Sam said, pressing play as Embry handed me a bowl chockablock with delicious, delicious nachos.

"Hey, watch out about that fever you're burning." Jake said as goodbye when I climbed into Collin's car.

"Back off." I said, glaring at him. I was glad that that was when Collin started the car and drove off.

"Still not getting much sleep?" Collin asked, glancing at me as he drove.

"Nope." I said, and sighed. "Are there any doctors nearby?"

"Sure. I'll take you to the hospital." Collin said. I made a face.

"I meant aren't there any doctor offices? You know, like some place that bulk bills or something?"

"Not around here. The hospital's closest." Collin said, and I sighed.

He made a right where he usually made a left, and soon enough he pulled into the hospital.

"Come on." He said, as he turned the engine off.

I think I might have begun hyperventilating. I've never been a huge fan of hospitals. Hospitals meant pain, and often having something broken.

"We're here to see Dr. Cullen." Collin said to the receptionist as we entered.

"Of course. He's with a patient at the moment, but I'm sure he'll be happy to see you when you're free."

"Yep. Can you just tell him that it's Collin Crimson?" He said. The receptionist nodded and noted that down.

Collin pulled me over to a row of comfortable looking plush chairs. I sat down silently, eyes wide.

"Anything wrong?" He asked, pulling a face as he got his mobile out to call Dad to tell him where we were.

"Uh, let's just say, that I don't like hospitals." I said.

"Oh come on, they aren't that bad. They're just like a doctor's office." As he said that a pregnant lady was wheeled past us, screaming and clutching her stomach.

"Right..." I said, as a guy clutching a bloody bandage to his wrist as he walked past. I couldn't help but stare. There was no hand at the end of that wrist. I shuddered.

"Okay, so what happened that makes you dislike hospitals?" He asked.

"Where should I start?"

"At the beginning?" I scoffed.

"Way too long."

"Okay, how about towards the end?" Collin suggested. I laughed.

"Okay, how about you choose two ages, and then I'll tell you two stories." I said.

"Okay then. Uh... Seven." He said.

"Let's see. When I was seven... Oh, this will answer two of your questions." I said. And held up the wrinkled envelope that had held the car keys from where I'd stashed it in my pocket.

"Oh, the envelope story." He said, and smiled before settling in. I sighed.

"Okay, well, I was seven, in grade two, and we had a foreign princess named Zoey Clear. ZC. She was only with us for a week. She sat next to me, and despite the language barrier, we got on well. There was a note system we used in our class where if we had something we wanted to say to someone, we put it in an envelope and into a 'pocket' at the back of the room, with that person's initials. We could check the pockets whenever we wanted, except during class.

"Every day Zoey was in town, there was an attack on her life. She told me about it the next day. The first day someone tried to stab her. The second someone tried to shoot her. The third someone tried to crash into the car she was in. The fourth someone tried to poison her... Her pet ferret died in her arms. And the fifth... Well, the fifth day, someone sent her a bomb.

"Friday afternoon's were the only time I checked my pocket. I wasn't really popular. Hell, the only person I really talked to in class, besides the teacher, was Zoey. I found an envelope in ZC's pocket. I was surprised, but I took it out and opened it. I'm lucky the assassin made the bomb wrong. All I remember was a flash of light, a lot of pain, something hitting my back, and then I woke up in hospital three days later.

"I had a few burns, but mostly grazes. The doctors stuffed up and brought me the wrong medication five times in two days. I was supposed to have medication for the pain, but instead I would start coughing up blood because of a side effect of some bipolar medication. Or my vision faded when they gave me some tonsilitis medication." I shuddered.

"That sucks." Collin said. "I mean, really, really sucks."

"And for your second age?"

"I'll go for twelve."

"Twelve... twelve... Oh! When I was twelve I was walking home from school with a friend. Well, an ex-friend now. It was quite a long walk, which was why we liked to do it together. Usually one of our mum's would come and pick us up, but sometimes we liked to walk. Like that day. So we were halfway there, when we had to cross a busy intersection. Usually we waited and talked until the traffic let down enough for us to cross, then waited in the middle, and repeated.

"That day, she saw a snake, so she jumped out onto the road. I jumped out right after her, more scared of the snake than the traffic. A car swerved to avoid her, but when I jumped out I landed in front of her, and it was too soon for the car to avoid me.

"I don't remember being hit, but the next thing I do remember is waking up in hospital later that night. I had a concussion, and a laceration in my head that had caused quite a lot of blood loss. When I came too, the doctors had three holes in my arms, trying to hit the veins. It took them five more attempts before they got it, and I had some more blood."

"Wow." Collin said. "And shit like that happens to you every time you're in hospital?"

"Haven't finished that story yet. When I was twelve, after the car crash, I tripped over my own feet, walking home by myself one day. I was going up a hill at the time. I fell down it and hit my head on the same cut as before." I said, and pushed my hair out of the way to show him the long scar behind my left ear. "This time I got the flu at hospital."

"Ouch."

"The very day after I'd gotten over the flu, I was up in a large tree at a park with my friend. We liked to see who could climb to the top, usually, but because I'd recently been sick we decided to nix that contest, and instead we just hung out up there and read for a while."

"And you fell out of the tree?"

"No. A magpie divebombed me and nearly took my eye out." I said. I showed him the tiny scar left from the magpie's beak, a barely visible spot just right from my right eye.

"Ouch." He said. "Anything else happen while you were twelve?"

"Nah. I'm glad you didn't ask about when I was fifteen. Now that's a very long list." I said, as I rubbed my pinky finger gently.

"Collin? Anything wrong?" I looked up and almost swore as I saw the guy who walked over to us. Okay, there is something REALLY weird going on here.

This guy was gorgeous. He had blonde hair, and black eyes. The same black eyes that had freaked me out about Edward.

"Actually we're not sure. Zac, this is Dr. Carlisle Cullen. Carlisle, this is my sister Zac." Collin said as way of introduction. I was glad when he said sister. I'm not sure I would have liked to be told that my jeans were girl jeans by a doctor.

"Pleasure to meet you, Zac." Dr. Cullen said, and smiled at me. My god his teeth were whiter than his skin. "And what seems to be the problem?"

"I've been having trouble sleeping." I said, as Collin and I followed him into his office.

We talked for a while, Dr. Cullen asking me questions, while I answered them to the best of my ability. The only thing I didn't mention was the wolf. Somehow I felt that what happened between the wolf and myself was a private matter.

"Here, take one of these half an hour before going to sleep, and youll be out like a light for about eight hours." Dr. Cullen said finally, handing me a jar of pills.

"Thanks." I said. I read the label while Collin drove home, and used a bottle of flat and somewhat warm coke that was floating about on the floor of the ute to take my first pill.

"Bleh, that coke tastes like piss." I said, throwing it out the window.

"That's littering." Collin pointed out. I made a face.

"I'm too tired to care right now."

I flopped down on my bed and passed out straight away.

**A/N:** Still wanted to do it longer, but I felt that that was a pretty good place to leave it off.


	6. Cat

I woke up to Collin shaking my shoulder. His hair was tousled, with a few leaves through it, and his face was covered in dirt.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Shouldn't I be the one asking that? That thought brought me to take more stock of my situation. There was the sound of rustling leaves outside my open window, my fan was on, my blankets were neatly folded on the floor beside my bed, and I was still screaming.

Realising that I was screaming, I abruptly stopped. There was silence for a moment, before Collin repeated his question. I took a look around me again. My window was open. My blankets were neatly folded on the floor beside my bed, and my fan was on. In my exhausted state before I fell asleep, I'd glanced out of the closed window, turned the heater on, and snuggled up under my blankets.

"I don't know." I said. I couldn't remember what had caused me to scream, but I knew that if it were anything to do with the fact that I'd just been sleeping, I could safely assume that I had been dreaming. And that could only mean the pain dream.

"It was a nightmare, I think." I said, as I threw my legs over the side of my bed. I stood up weakly, and Collin held out his arm to help steady me.

"Are you alright?" He asked, frowning.

"I think so." I said. "I think I might just have a shower." I said. Collin helped me walk to the bathroom.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" He asked. I nodded, and he closed the door behind him.

I took of my flannel pyjamas and stared in the mirror for a while.

My skin seemed bright red, as if I were badly sunburnt. When I touched my skin though, it just felt normal.

I poured some water into the sink, and splashed my face. It felt ice cold. I pulled back, biting back a shriek. Bile rose in my throat and I made a dive for the toilet, expelling my dinner in the bowl.

"You okay in there?" Collin asked, pounding on the door.

"I'm fine." I called back, before throwing up again.

I heard a howl outside, that sounded like a wolf, and for a brief moment it felt like my heart stopped.

Collin broke the door down while I was throwing up for a third time.

He walked over to me and knelt down beside me, rubbing my back in soothing motions, murming "It's okay" in my ear as I threw up some more.

Another purge into the toilet bowl, and I was leaning against Collin. His skin felt cold against my bare skin.

It wasn't until a few moments later that we both realised I was naked. Collin quickly left, to return with a warm blanket.

"You must have gotten the flu from Ed." He said, as he helped me up. He wiped my face with what felt like an ice cold cloth before helping me to my bed. He laid me down and put my blankets on me.

"I'll call your school. I won't be able to have the day off, but Dad might pop around in his lunch break to help out. And I could get Sam and Emily to come if you want."

"I'll be okay." I said, but I was already feeling tired. My eyes fluttered and I fell asleep before he'd even left.

I don't remember my dream, if I even dreamt. But when I woke up next light was shining through my closed window, on the large wolf that sat there, panting as it watched me. I sat up and watched it.

The light shining through my window dimmed, and next moment it was Jake there on my floor, taking the place of the wolf. He was crouched down, but he stood up, and I could tell he was naked. I stared into his eyes as he walked towards me. He sat down on my bed, and leaned toward me. His lips briefly touched mine, and I feinted from the sudden heat and pain blaring through my body.

I woke up again what felt like moments later. The light was the same, but my room was empty. I was covered in lots of blankets, which I quickly kicked off from feeling hot. I got out of bed and got dressed, before heading out to the kitchen, and pouring myself some lucky charms. Delicious marshmallowy goodness.

When I finished my bowl, I went to my room and grabbed my car keys, from where I'd placed them on my bedside table. Checking my watch it was nine. If I hurried I could make it to school and I wouldn't be too dreadfully late.

But when I got into my car I decided that I definitely was not going to go to school. Collin already called to tell them I wouldn't be there. So instead I decided to drive to Ed's.

"Wow, you look ten times better than yesterday." She said when she saw me.

"Yeah, I feel it too." I said. Since I'd woken I hadn't felt horrible at all.

"That's good." Ed grabbed a tissue and coughed into it.

We chatted for a while, before Ed started yawning. I left her then, to let her sleep for a bit, and walked over to Sam and Emily's. I'd texted Collin to tell him how much better I felt, and that I'd meet him at Sam and Emily's.

Sam wasn't there, but Emily made me some chicken noodle soup and played some games with me.

"The guys should all be here when school's finished." Emily said, as she moved her queen to take my knight.

Three thirty rolled around and they were all there. Paul went next door to Ed, while I curled up on my window seat, and Jake sat down on the beanbag next to me. I shivered when I saw him, remembering my earlier dream, which had ended in pain after he had kissed me.

I couldn't stop thinking about it, even while we figured out how to have a mario kart tournament that included everyone.

In the end it was me versus Jake for first and second. We were playing rainbow road and Wario and I came out victorious.

Ah, mario kart.

Collin was staring at me more than Jake today, and I frowned at him when I noticed him. He quickly looked away.

"Wanna leave your car here and I'll drive us home?" Collin asked when it was time to leave.

"Nah, I'm fine to drive." I said, getting into my car and starting it. He got into his ute and I followed him home.

I didn't take a pill this time. I didn't feel that I needed it. Instead I just went to sleep.

I didn't dream about the pain this time. Instead as soon as I closed my eyes I was in a room with a wall made entirely of glass. The sun shone in from outside and lit up the room in a fantastic way. I was awed when I looked around. There was a piano in a corner, and sitting at it, playing, was Edward. I couldn't hear what he was playing, so I moved closer. Instead of music coming from the piano, I heard Bella's voice. She was saying how much she loved Edward, and how she felt like she didn't deserve him. Edward was frowning as he played, but the look of concentration remained on his face, and he continued playing, bringing more of Bella's words forward.

I was about to leave when Bella began to talk about Jake. How did she know Jake? Curious, I stepped closer. She was talking about how amazing he was, and how she almost wished that she hadn't met Edward, if only so she could be the girl he truly deserved. She mentioned that she really wished she could find a girl who was good enough for him.

And then it went back to Edward. I frowned and left the room.

As soon as I passed through the door, I was in another room that I'd never seen. Jake was lying down on a bed, staring at the ceiling. He threw brightly coloured balls in the air and caught them expertly.

The phone rang, but he ignored it. A few more rounds of throwing and catching the juggling balls, and he put them aside, sighed, rolled over, and went to sleep. I was about to leave, but as he slept, instead of snoring, he began to talk in his sleep. I leaned in closer.

"Zac." Was the first word I heard. The next word was "mario" then "peach". Raising an eyebrow I stepped closer, and reached down to shake him awake, but my hand went right through his shoulder. Stepping back with shock, I tripped over my own feet, and fell, screaming.

To wake up in my room, curled up in bed, uttering a sound that shocked me more than any other that could have come out of my house. "Meow". I cried. I tried to sit up, only to find my body was different. I stared at my hands in shock. They'd become paws. Paws covered in fur. I leapt up quickly and fell off of my bed, somehow landing on my feet.

"Rrrrowwwwr." I cried out. Collin came running and opened my door. Thankfully he didn't break this one down, because it wasn't locked. He looked about, and swore. I rowr'd again, and Collin looked down. His eyes widened and he swore again.

"Zac?" He asked. I tried to nod, but it was weird. He was so high up. He reached down and lifted me up.

"Uhhh..." He swore again, and carried me out to his ute. "I'll get this fixed, I promise." He said, as he settled me down. "Do you think you'll be alright for a ride?"

I tried to shrug but fell over and hissed instead.

"Is that a yes or a no?" I glared at him, something that thankfully was quite easy to do, even as a cat. "I'll take that as a yes." He said, before turning the key and starting to drive. I tried to hang on to the seat, and somehow managed to unsheath my claws and dig them into the car seat.

We finally reached our destination, and Collin picked me up, cradling me against his chest. I tried to glare at him, but I could only see his chin.

He knocked on the door, having to put me down to do so. I tried to stand up, but it was weird trying to allocate my body weight for four paws instead of two legs.

I managed to just as the door opened. I looked up, and I saw Sam in black and white, standing in the open doorway. Well, I could mostly only see his bare chest. All he wore was a pair of boxers. His hair was mussed up, from being woken up.

"What's wrong Col?" He asked.

"We have a serious problem." Collin said. He gestured down to me. Sam looked down at me and raised an eyebrow.

"You decided to get a cat?" He asked. "What's the problem with that? Besides the... y'know." He leaned down to pick me up, and looked at me. "Black fur, purple eyes, and have you dyed the tips of his fur blue? Is it supposed to look like Zac?"

"It uhhh... It is..." Sam dropped me as what Collin was trying to say reached him.

"You're joking." He said, and swore. He looked down at me. "Sorry Zac." He said as he picked me up again. "I didn't mean to drop you. I was just surprised." He swore again.

"Em!" He called. Emily came downstairs. She had a white lace nightdress on, and it fluttered around her thighs as she walked towards Sam.

"Aww, pretty kitty." She said, and scratched me under my ears. "But is this really an important- Oh no. Zac."

I was placed on the counter, and given a bowl full of chili. It was nice and spicy but it took me a while to figure out how to eat it. The fur around my mouth was covered in chili by the end of it. Emily wiped it clean for me and gave me a bowl of milk. I glared at her.

"Hey, milk's good for cat's." She said, and smiled. She stroked my back, and I found a purr involuntarily coming from my throat.

Sam and Collin had gone outside. I heard a wolf howl somewhere outside, and jumped despite myself, my fur standing on end.

"It's alright Zac." She said. And stroked me some more to calm me down. "It's perfectly alright." An image of trees flying past me unnerved me and I cowered on the bench. A house I'd never seen before seemed to rear up in front of me, and then all I saw was my window, from the outside. I kept on thinking about me, which just made me think about Jake. My head whirled. A few minutes later, and I saw more trees flying past, and thought of me in cat form, and saw a lot of wolves like the one I'd seen outside of my window, and then back to just my window after a brief flash of Sam's house.

We waited a while and finally they came back.

"Okay, Billy gave us a few ideas, and we think we know why this happened." Sam said. He then looked into my eyes. "I'm going to need to talk to Zac." He picked me up and walked up to the spare room.

What he told me in that room terrified me, more than anything. It also explained a hell of a lot of things to me. Finally, Sam shifted to a wolf, and I saw myself in his eyes, a scared cat cowering on the bed, with eyes wide and fur prickling.

Then I felt his thoughts. He guided me through the transformation, and then I saw myself crouching naked on the bed. I watched him, and he transformed as well. He wasn't wearing any clothes either, but he was good about us both being naked. He brought me a blanket, which I wrapped about my body, and he wrapped a towel around his middle.

"Come on." He said.

I shivered despite myself, and followed him out.

I slept over that night, and wore some of Emily's spare clothes to school. They hung very loose on me, even though Emily wasn't huge. I had to make entirely new holes in one of Sam's belts to keep her pants around my waist.

Collin dropped me off at school, and gave me a warning before he left to his own school.

"Be careful what you feel. You won't be able to control your transformations for a while. Any extreme emotions will likely cause you to shift."

"Yeah, yeah." I said, shivering. I made my way to my first class, even though it was an hour before school was due to start.

No one was there yet, so I read my history book while I waited for class to start. Mike was first in. He sat down beside me and began chatting my ear off about this and that.

Bella was next. She sat down in front of me and turned around.

"Are you related to Collin Crimson, by any chance?" She asked.

"He's my brother." I said.

"Oh. So I guess you know Jake Black then?" I nodded. She fired off names of everyone I'd been getting to know and be friends with, and I nodded.

Then Edward arrived, and thankfully took her attention away from me.

Soon enough the class was full, and the teacher came in.

"So why weren't you here yesterday?" Mike asked.

"I was sick." I said.

"You don't look sick now."

"That's because I'm not sick now."

"Oh. Well, I'm glad to see that you're better." In front of him Edward coughed and I think Bella tittered.

_If I should die before I wake, it's 'cause you took my breath away, losing you is like living in a world with no air, ooooh._

The song came from Bella's pocket and she turned bright red as she quickly turned it off. The teacher walked over and held out his hand. She put her phone in it reluctantly.

**A/N:** I could do longer, but then I thought here's a good point to leave off. So enjoy. Also, DunDiedLastYear is epic, and owes me three more chapters for the three I've given her :P. Ummm... Oh yeah, the song reference is No Air, by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown. That song stalked me for a while a couple of years ago. First I was looking up random twilight youtube videos, and I found a really good video done by a fan, to the song No Air. It was before Twilight came out, so it was made with clips from other things that the two actors have been in, and whatever clips they'd managed to find of Twilight. Anyway, I have to do the dishes now, and I don't really feel like saving and continuing later, so enjoy this for now, and I'll start the next chapter when the dishes are done.

Also reviews are excellent. I love reading your reviews. They make me smile.


	7. Imprint?

I hated that song with a vengeance. Why did it have to be playing? The world seemed to dim before my eyes, and my heart beat somewhat faster in my chest. Not again. I quickly jumped up and ran to the bathroom, ignoring the teacher, and the students, as everyone stared after me. I was already out of the door when the teacher realised that I was leaving, and started to follow me.

For once I was glad of long legs. They helped me cover ground much faster than the short, rotund teacher. I locked myself in a bathroom stall, just as my knees gave way.

The bathroom door banged open just as I slipped out from under the stall.

"H-hey kit-ty." The teacher said, between pants. He stopped to catch his breath for a while, and scratched behind my ears.

"Zacara, I know you're in here!" He called out. "Come out now, and I will take some hours off of the detention you'll have to serve." Seriously? He expected me to believe that? Or to take up the deal? Hmph. But hey, I wouldn't have to deal with the detention. My whiskers moved forward, in what I recognised as a cat smile. Well, at least I wouldn't have to worry about it right now.

The bell ringed, meaning the end of the school day. The teacher opened the bathroom door, and I quickly slipped out with him. Now what to do. I could hardly drive in this... condition. Any more than I could call Collin to pick me up.

I started toward my car. At the very least someone would realise that I was held up somehow. Maybe someone will even transform soon, and I'll be able to connect with them. I jumped up onto the bonnet of my car, and curled up. Nothing I could do except wait, I guess.

The first mind to touch mine was the last one I wanted to hear.

_Zac?_

_What, Jake?_

_Where are you?_

_Wonderland._ I put as much sarcasm into the thought as I could, before relenting, and opening my eyes, sending the image of my surroundings to him.

_Can you change back?_

_Yes. I've just been waiting here for fun._

_I'll be there in a few minutes._ I saw trees fly past, and had to close my eyes so they were the only thing I could see. It was still very disconcerting to seem like I'm moving, but not feel like I'm moving.

Then I saw my car, with myself on top of it. And then nothing.

I opened my eyes, and looked around, before quickly closing them again. Jake was pulling on some clothes. Which reminded me of my jeans and shirt in the girls toilets. I sighed. My keys were in there.

"Where are your keys?" Jake asked, obviously coming to the same realisation I had. I stared at him for a moment before jumping down and leading him towards the girls toilets.

"I can't go in there!" Jake said when he realised my destination. I meowed at him. _It's after school hours. It's not like anyone will be there._ "You're probably right." He sighed and opened the door.

As it turns out, I was wrong. Bella was standing in front of the stall I had left my clothes in.

"Zac? Are you okay in there?" She asked, tucking a lock of brown hair behind her ear. She spun around when she heard the door close, and her eyes flew open when she saw Jake.

"Jake? What are you doing here?" She asked. "And in the girls bathroom! I told you, I chose Edward." Jake just rolled his eyes and kicked down the door to the stall, picking my clothes up.

"Woah. Where'd she go?" Bella asked. I meowed. _Hey! I'm down here, bitch!_

"Come on, Zac, we'd best get going before anyone worries."

"Wait a second, _that_'_s_ Zac?" Bella asked, gesturing to me. I rolled my eyes as best I could, and waited by the door, feeling a curious sensation behind me. I turned around and saw that my tail was waving impatiently.

"Sorry Bella, gotta go." Jake said, opening the door. I shot out like a bolt and ran to my car, waiting for Jake to catch up. He was there in a moment, and unlocked the driver's door. I jumped up and sat on the seat.

"Zac, how do you expect to drive?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I sighed as best I could. Damn this pathetically small form. I jumped over to the passenger seat. Jake sidled into the driver seat.

_You'd better not speed._ I meowed.

"You're a cat, you can hold on." Wait, he could actually hear me? I frowned as I thought about this. He started my car, and reversed at a speed I usually reserved for highways. I dug my claws into the still new seat cover and cursed him the whole way to Sam's house.

"Come on, let's go in." Jake said, picking me up. I dug my claws into his hand. I actually drew blood. But he held on still. He swore at me, called me a stubborn mule, but carried me inside, cradled in his arms.

"She's going to have a few choice words to say to you when she changes back." Paul said, chuckling to himself somewhat.

_Believe me, I'm already saying them._ I meowed, at the same time Jake said, "believe me, she's already saying them."

"What? You can hear her?" Paul asked. He glanced at me, but then nodded. "Right, the imp-" Jake put his hand quickly over Paul's mouth. Unfortunately that meant he had to drop me. Fortunately my cat like reflexes had me landing on the floor and running quickly upstairs to Sam and Emily's room.

"God damnit." Jake said when I'd run off. No one was upstairs, so I dove under the couple's bed. I noticed a mouse hole, and poked a paw into it, my curious side getting the better of me. There wasn't anything in there, and I was about to leave it be when I heard something. Inching closer slowly, the voices grew louder, though I could tell they were speaking in whispers.

"Look, I just don't want her thinking it's anything she has to do."

"But she kinda does."

"But I want her to like me for me."

"She does."

"She hates me."

"I really don't think she does."

"Have you seen the way she reacts when she sees me looking at her?"

"Are you positive it's an imprint?"

"Absolutely."

"And you're willing to stake a perfectly good friendship, and maybe even your life on that?"

"We're not even friends. And I wouldn't do anything that would cause her to want to kill me."

"I was talking about Collin."

"She'd have to like me to begin with." Jake sighed. "Look, I know this is an imprint. I can feel it. It's not like what I had with Bella that was just... That was just _puppy love_." He said the phrase like an insult. "Besides, I think I saved her life."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she was going to die. Her body was going to reject the transformation. It's not meant to happen in girls. I kissed her... I think that's why she changed into a cat, not a wolf."

"What do you mean?"

"You know how Sam and I have been researching our history? How we found out that we're shapeshifters, not real werewolves?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Well, in the original pack days, the whole tribe could shift, and into any shape they wanted. As soon as they hit puberty... They could shift. Girls, boys, young, old, as long as they'd hit puberty. Then there were the vampires, and we had to shift into the wolf form we now know. Only the strongest shifted into wolves. That was when the mental link kicked in. But those who hadn't shifted into wolves could still shift.

"Within the next few generations, however, only the wolves could shift. And even then only if there was need for them to be in pack form. Only if a vampire was near La Push. Every now and then, someone who was undergoing the change, couldn't quite make it. Mostly they died. But once, a young wolf who had imprinted on a young woman, kissed her. He shared his strength with her, and it pushed her into fully transforming.

"But she wasn't a real part of the pack. Sure, she could communicate the same way the rest of the pack could. And she had the same limitations, mostly. She could transform into any shape she chose fit."

"So you think Zac's a true shifter? Just like that?"

"I'm positive. I think that when she gets control over her shifting, she'll be able to shift into whatever she may want."

"You realise this sounds kind of crazy?"

"Sam and I both know it's true. Of course, I haven't exactly told him yet about the..."

"About kissing her?" Paul added.

"Yeah. I mean, it's obvious I've imprinted on her, but with her not liking me back, I just kinda figured it best not to mention it. After all, even in the story, they'd already been intimate a few times before."

"Okay you two conspirators, where's Zac?" Emily said.

"We think she's upstairs somewhere." Paul said.

"Well you can go get her, and take her to visit Ed with this."

"Uh, yeah, there's kinda a situation..." Jake said, while I heard someone coming up the stairs. "See..." I didn't hear any more, because I inched away from the mouse hole, and made my way to the edge of the bed, to look out under an overhanging sheet.

"WHAT!" The voice that made me jump and my back hit the bedframe was Sam's. I didn't hear anything else, and was trying to stretch out the instant ache I had in my back when Paul pulled me from under the bed.

"I bet that hurt." He whispered to me, scratching my back as he carried me downstairs. He took me into the kitchen, where Emily was standing by a bowl of spaghetti. I could just see Sam and Jake outside, and the door cut off the sound of Sam's obviously angered voice as it slammed shut behind them.

"What happened?" Collin asked, stepping into the kitchen. He took one look at me and swore, before looking around and following Jake and Sam outside. I meowed sadly. Emily sighed and scratched behind my ears.

"Do you remember how to change back?" She asked. I nodded sadly, but then shook my head. I remembered how... I just couldn't do it. Emily frowned, and looked at Paul, who sighed. He turned around and started removing his clothes. If I were in my own body, I would have blushed. As it was, I think the skin under my fur went bright red. I closed my eyes until I felt his mind touching my own.

_Do you remember how?_

_Yes._

_Then what's wrong?_

_I can't._

_What do you mean?_

I couldn't think of any way to phrase it, so I used images and feelings to express what was happening to Paul. He gave a low growl of understanding, before shifting back.

"Get Jake." He said, getting dressed.

**A/N:** Aaaaaand I think I'll leave it there for now. Enjoyed? I hope so. As always, DunDiedLastYear is epic, and I love love love reviews.


	8. Out of Control

_What's wrong?_

I didn't want to have to explain it to him. Especially not now that I'd heard about the imprint stuff upstairs. Sam may not have sat me down and explained to me about imprinting. He'd mentioned it in passing yesterday, but hadn't focused on it, and I hadn't thought to ask. But hearing that Jake had imprinted on me... Well it made me uncomfortable around him.

He growled at me when I didn't answer. Despite knowing he wouldn't hurt me, the growl made me jump. I leaped off of the counter, and tore upstairs, diving back underneath Sam and Emily's bed again.

It was too small for him to fit underneath, so he lay down and poked his snout under, looking at me with sad, wide, dark brown eyes.

_Why can't you change back?_

_I just can't! Now go away._

He just looked at me, and I could tell he wasn't about to leave me.

_Do you remember how Sam showed you?_

_Yes I remember how Sam showed me! _I snapped. Jake huffed, which actually managed to blow me over backwards. I glared at him.

_Just relax. Think... human thoughts._

I humoured him. I laid down, with my head on my paws, and relaxed, thinking very human things. Thinking of Ed. Of Collin. Of Dad. Of Mum, and Kevin. The only person I kept from my thoughts was Jake. Which he noticed.

_Okay, first of all, get out of there. You're never going to be able to fit under there as a human._ He seemed to rethink that for a moment when he realised that I was really small. _Well, it won't be comfortable. And there are lots of rusty springs down there._

I attempted to roll my eyes, though that only managed to disorient me. I stumbled out from under the bed, and glared at him when I realised something.

_What? _

_You know what. _He blinked at me, clearly confused. I thought back to when he'd picked me up from school, changing from his wolf form to human, and he'd needed to put on the clothes that had been tied to one of his forepaws.

_Oh._ Was all he said. He rolled his eyes, before slipping out of the room. _Now, stop not thinking about me._

_I'm not not thinking about you, I'm just not thinking about you._

_You're not thinking about me on purpose. Stop it. Think about me._

I gritted my teeth. I didn't want to. Especially not with him outside. But finally, with a growl from my stomach, I relented. I thought about Jake. About how apparently the kiss we'd shared, hadn't been a dream.

About how apparently he'd imprinted on me... Had I imprinted on him? Is that why I'm thinking about him so much? Is it why his kiss helped save me, apparently?

I thought about him. About the wolf I saw outside my window, protecting me. About how he was always looking at me. And about how he was awkwardly trying to make conversation with me.

_That's it... Just think of me._

His voice in my head made me hiss, but somehow, that's what did it. I was suddenly embarrassed about him being able to read my thoughts. I didn't want him to know how I thought of him. It was weird enough knowing how he felt about me. I felt it, this time, the change as my fur slipped back into my skin. As my bones lengthened.

I wrapped a sheet from Sam and Emily's bed just before Jake came in, completely naked. I blushed and turned away, scrabbling for another sheet to throw at him. He took it, and wrapped it around his waist.

"Are you alright?" He asked. I nodded, without turning around to look at him. I couldn't look at him just now. Not while knowing how he felt about me. Or that he knew how I felt about him...

"Here, wear this." He said, after rummaging through one of the drawers. I took the dress he handed me, and threw it over my head, letting the sheet fall down around my feet.

"Hey, Zac, there's something I need to tell you." His voice was so serious, I spun around, heart in my throat, before closing my eyes when I realised he'd dropped his sheet in order to pull on a pair of Embry's jeans.

"Look-" I said, fighting the urge to peek between my fingers. "I know about the whole imprint thing. I know you probably know everything that I was thinking of..." My whole face was bright red. "But I'm still getting used to all this. Not just the whole... Cat thing, though that's a lot to take in. But the whole America thing. And being away from my Mum... Well, it's a lot for me to take in. And the whole imprint thing is just one more huge thing." I took a deep breath. "And I promise, if you're still interested in the future... If you're still interested, and I'm able to... When I'm ready... We'll try. But I don't want you to wait for me. Or anything like that."

"First of all... You can open your eyes now." Jake said. I did and rather than seeing the hurt I was expecting to see on his face, I saw a soft understanding. "Secondly.. Well, you can't know as much about imprinting as you say, if you think I'd ever be able to move on. And finally..." He looked into my eyes with his deep brown ones, and I felt like I was going to melt. "I was going to tell you that I let you win at Mario Cart."

"Oh." Was all I could say, as I followed him downstairs.

"Oh good, you're back. Are you alright, Zac?" Sam asked. I nodded. "Collin's on his way here, now." He said. And his words rang true as my brother stepped through the door.

"Zac, are you alright? Dad's furious. Your teacher rang, and said you skipped out on the end of your class." Collin said. He then took a look at the fact I was in one of Emily's dress, instead of the old t-shirt and jeans I had been wearing this morning, and he realised what must have happened. "Crap." He said.

I nodded. That pretty much summed it up.

"I'll call him and let him know... You can stay out of school until you can control yourself." I know he didn't mean it to hurt me, but the way he said that, it made me feel like I was someone who was unable to control herself. And it felt insulting.

I sipped on a calming grape soda as he talked to Dad outside. The kitchen was filled with silence. No one really knew what to say.

"Dad thinks you should stay here for a few days and learn from Sam, until you can control yourself." I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, but just nodded. Emily smiled at me, and went upstairs to go make up the spare bed for me.

"So no school? I think I can live with that. Lemme just go say hi to Ed." I said, standing up, wiping blood from my lip. Jake shook his head and stopped me.

"Sorry, Zac." He said, hand on my arm. "Can't let you go."

"What? Why not?"

Jake looked to Sam, as if asking him to break the bad news to me, instead of seeming like the bad guy.

"Well, Zac, you could accidentally reveal us to your friend. Due to circumstances, we're going to let her know anyway, but not like this."

"Circumstances?" I queried. Sam looked to Paul, who blushed, and I realised why he had seemed to have such an instant reaction to seeing Ed. He'd imprinted on her. "Oh." I said.

"I'll tell her you said hi, though." Paul said, before grabbing a bowl of chili and heading next door. I pouted, and sat down on my stool. Great, I was stuck here for the next few days. Or maybe even longer.

"So how long is it supposed to take me to be able to _control_ myself?" I asked, practically growling. Sam's eyes widened, and he took a step back, throwing his hands up defensively.

"Woah, woah, woah, we don't mean it like that. It's just... When you're not used to it-"

"How long!"

"It depends on the person."

"So?"

"So maybe a few days... Maybe a few months..."

"A few MONTHS?" I practically exploded. I heard something crash upstairs, and knew I'd upset Emily.

I'd upset myself, too. It wasn't until I wondered why everyone seemed so far above me that I realised I'd shifted again. I meowed unhappily, and jumped off of the stool I had been sitting on, heading outside.

_Where are you going?_

I don't know how I recognised him. I'd barely said anything to Seth since I'd met him. He was alright, but he was the quiet one of the bunch. The young one, who really just went along with everyone else.

_To the beach._

_Want some company?_

_I'm fine._

The sandy coloured wolf, with short hair found me at the beach anyway. The feeling of sand between my paws was an unfamiliar, and rather unpleasant one. I found a discarded towel, and used it to wipe my paws clean before lying down on it. Seth sat down behind me.

_So you're..._

_Yeah._

We just sat there in silence, then. He ducked his head, in what looked like a wolfie nod. We just sat there for a few minutes, watching the waves rolling in, before Jake found us.

I'm not sure how he found us, but he sat down on my other side, and Seth left.

"Are you alright?" I looked at him like he was crazy. I was going to be unable to control my shifting from human to cat and back again. Probably for the next few months. And he wanted to know if I was alright?

"Okay, yeah, that's kind of a stupid question. Do you want me to learn more about shifting?" I flicked an ear at him. _Of course I want to learn more about bloody shifting... Idiot._

"No need to be nasty." He said. He took a deep breath, and watched the waves for a little while, before oipening his mouth again. "Well, it all started lots of years ago, with our ancestors..."

**A/N: **Sorry for how long I've been in updating, but I've not really had much inspiration for this story for a while... Or any of my fanfics, sadly. I'm trying to change that around at the moment, so while I'm not going to promise anything, hopefully all of my fanfics will be updated soon, and more often again.


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